By MIKE TEAL
This past Saturday wrapped up the “Orson Welles Creative Arts Festival” in Woodstock, IL, where Orson Welles was educated at the Todd School For Boys.
The festival grew out of a celebration last year of what would have been Welles’ 100th birthday, a tribute that was so successful organizers decided to continue it annually. “Each year will be one-third the legacy of Welles and two-thirds open to contemporary art of any form,” festival co-chairman Gregory Gantner said.
This year’s theme sought to tie Welles in with the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death; and in addition to showing Welles’s Shakespearean trilogy of films, “Macbeth”, “Othello”, and “Chimes at Midnight” earlier in the month, there was a special theatre presentation this past weekend inspired by Welles’s 1939 “Five Kings” production, in a one-hour abridgment, followed by Tibetan artist Tashi Norbu creating a Shakespeare and Welles-inspired painting onstage while a string quartet played classical pieces. A fascinating and unusual pair of programs. The Five Kings especially, even though it dispensed with the Falstaff character, made one curious to read Welles’s original production script.
The next day, the final day of the fest, saw a trio of lectures by three noted Welles scholars. First up was Michael Dawson, producer of the 1992 “Othello” restoration, and co-founder of this year’s festival along with filmmaker Greg Gantner (who filmed all the lectures for future use). Dawson talked about his restoration work on both “Othello” and “Chimes at Midnight”, and showed a documentary on the restoration process used for Othello.
Marguerite Rippy, professor at Merry Mount University in Virginia, and author of the fine 2007 book, “Orson Welles and RKO Projects”, followed, with a lecture on Welles’s 1936 “Voodoo Macbeth” stage production; the legends surrounding it (including the mysterious death of critic Percy Hammond), how it was an early example of Welles’s “cinematic” use of sound and stagecraft, and how it also fit into Welles’s lifelong concern for civil rights. Dr. Rippy said she hopes to use this lecture as the nucleus for a book on the Voodoo Macbeth production in the near future. She has also contributed to a book of essays that may be released this Spring.
Michael Anderegg, professor at North Dakota University, and author of the excellent 1995 book, “Orson Welles, Shakespeare, and Popular Culture” , concluded the day with a very entertaining lecture on the various productions of “King Lear” that Welles was involved with throughout his career, in several different media, including radio, TV, theatre and film. The lecture was somewhat reminiscent of Jonathon Rosenbaum’s classic Film Comment article, “The Seven Articles”, and Mr. Anderegg was able to illuminate how doing the play several times throughout his career allowed Welles to better understand and internalize the role as he got older, which makes the funding failure of his late-career attempt to turn Lear into a film all the more of an artistic loss.
The evening was topped off with a Halloween Party promoting Orson Welles Wine and TCM’s Wine club.
The Festival also consisted of a month-long exhibit at the venerable Woodstock Court House featuring all of Welles Shakespeare productions in radio, stage and film.
Attendance to the festival was partially negated by the Chicago Cubs playing in their first World Series in 71 years (and winning it for the first time in 108 years!) In fact an important VIP Skype event with Beatrice Welles was postponed due to the lower turn out. Woodstock Celebrates Inc (501c3) is planning to reschedule the Skype event at Northwestern University. However, Dawson and Gantner were both happy with the way the festival turned out and are already planning next year’s Welles Creative Arts Festival, which they hope to turn into an annual event. Thanks in no small measure to these two gentlemen – as well as Jack Bechaud, who runs the “Woodstock Celebrates” Facebook page – Woodstock, which Welles considered his hometown, is starting to rediscover it’s connection to Welles, and it’s cultural heritage, of which Welles is such a large part.
We wish these people well in their future endeavors.
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