Avalon Players Perform “Comedy of Errors” in August
By David Bolling
We’re sitting in the velour lounge outside the women’s restroom in the Sebastiani Theatre as another day of Performing Arts Camp tapers off, while several dozen budding thespians/dancers/singers squeal and laugh and stick their heads inside the door to say hi to Kate Kennedy who is explaining how she survived COVID by running and hiking and working out two hours a day.
There’s more than a little Robin Williams in Kate, who knows every name of every Performing Arts Camper, and she slips through an inventory of spot-on accents – from Brooklyn to Belfast – exchanging verbal hugs with the latest iteration of junior performing artists, every one of whom clearly seems to love her. She and Diana Rhoten founded the camp decades ago and it’s still going strong in a sonic cloud of happy chaos, with a curriculum that includes Shakespeare for kids.
But she’s not talking about the campers right now, she’s talking about the dogs she walks, the places she hikes, how she stays in shape.
She claims she’s 70, but like many people as they age, she’s probably lying, but in reverse, because she looks at most 50, maybe 55. She seems endlessly youthful.
While we’re on the subject of dogs, a camper comes in and sits on the nearby sofa to explain the difference between dogs and cats.
“When you feed a dog,” the young camper explains, in a perfect deadpan delivery, “they think you’re God. When you feed a cat, they think, ‘I’m God.’” With nearly professional timing the girl then gets up and exits stage right. You can almost hear the snare drum.
Done with dogs, we shift to the 46th season of her production company, Avalon Players, and her annual presentation of Shakespeare Under The Stars, which will be performing “The Comedy of Errors” on ten nights in August at Buena Vista Winery, beginning on August 6. This season, sadly, will be the last at Buena Vista, a venue that has generously accommodated Shakespeare in its spacious courtyard and from the windows of the massive stone Press Room, where Juliet has received Romeo’s timeless declaration, “It is my lady, O, it is my love!”
Kate has nothing but praise for Jean Charles Boisset, who bought the winery shortly before embracing the Bard. But wine industry economics are in a tailspin and the winery can no longer afford the luxury of hosting Romeo, Juliet, Petruchio, Malvolvio, Puck, Proteus or Antipholus for ten nights each August.
So far, an alternate venue has not been found, Kate is still looking – and hopes “Maybe a door will open,” – but meanwhile this season’s show must go on and, she wants you to know, patron tables of eight seats are available for $1,500, complete with six bottles of wine.
If a new venue isn’t found, Kate will not be without a very full life. “I love what I do. I’ve never worked a day in my life.”
Part of what she loves is turning random children, along with doctors and lawyers and even members of the City Council into Shakespearian performers.
“I don’t give a shit what you do, if you have a heartbeat and a pulse I can make you an actor.” Even Jack Ding, a City Council member and former Sonoma Mayor whose native accent required some diction lessons. “He’s such a lovely man. I love it. I love working with them.”
Kate’s largely unprofessional troupe gets 12 rehearsals between May and August to put together a play. Just memorizing the lines would seem daunting, but Kate leads her casts to the online site, “No Fear Shakespeare” which breaks down Olde English into modern English.” I give ‘em a deadline,” she says, “and they do it.”
As Kate talks there is a metronome attached to her left leg which is dancing with invisible energy – perhaps solar powered – which seems to keep her perpetually charged. Kate Kennedy doesn’t just speak, she emotes. Drama plays across her face in rapid-fire frames, her rich, surprisingly husky voice colors the words she speaks into vibrant images. She is, after all, an actor. So why isn’t she acting?
“I’ve had my fun and done it, you know? Back in the day, my priorities were acting, directing, teaching. Now I’ve flipped them.”
Kate played Dorothy in The Wizard Oz when she was five, spent two years as lead actress for the San Francisco Shakespeare Company and spent more years in a touring Shakespeare company, performing in numerous outdoor venues, including Golden Gate Park. Eventually, she stumbled on Sonoma and realized she was home.
Generations of children now know something about the Bard, thanks to Kate, and for years she directed the equally flamboyant Fifth Grade Melodrama at Dunbar School’s outdoor stage in Glen Ellen. In 1999 the city honored her as Sonoma’s Treasure Artist of the Year. And while she may actually be 70, she’s clearly nowhere close to withdrawing from the stage.
“I’m pretty happy with the journey I’ve been on,” she says. “I just like what I do.”
Now, if Kate Kennedy can just find another outdoor venue for her Avalon Players, she can keep on doing it.
Be First to Comment