http://www.nctimes.net/ news/2002/20021002/preview/115352.html

FOR THE WEEK OF Oct. 3-9, 2002

MiraCosta's actors academy fills cast of 'Merry Wives'
By:PAM KRAGEN Staff Writer

MiraCosta's actors academy fills cast of 'Merry Wives'PAM KRAGEN Staff Writer When MiraCosta College theater professor Eric Bishop teaches actors how to perform in a Shakespeare play, he gives them three basic rules: "Clarity, clarity, clarity ---- that's what I preach."

"It's important to the audience to know what's going on, and it's important for the actor to understand what they're saying and have some degree of skill with the text," said Bishop, who directs the Bard's "Merry Wives of Windsor," opening Friday at MiraCosta. Bishop's appreciation for the ins and outs of Shakespearean iambic pentameter, prose and verse led him to launch the college's Actor's Academy in 2001.

For the past two summers, 30 students from San Diego and Orange counties have came to MiraCosta for intensive study in voice, acting and Shakespearean scene study.
The program was so successful in its first year that this past summer, one-third of its students were returning graduates from the 2001 academy who came back for more in-depth study.

"The Merry Wives of Windsor" When: 8 p.m. Oct. 4-5 and Oct. 10-12; 2 p.m. Oct. 6 and Oct. 13 Where: MiraCosta College Theatre, 1 Barnard Drive, Oceanside Tickets: $10, general; $8, seniors; $6, students Info: (760) 757-2121, Ext. 6452

Bishop said academy students study "scan-sion," a process that breaks down words into iambic pentameter and helps them understand what syllables and words should be stressed and which should be de-emphasized. They also learn a special phonetics alphabet that helps them relearn how to create words' sounds.

"We plant the seeds at the beginning of the academy so that by the end, the students are flourishing with the language."
So many students flourished in this summer's academy, in fact, that 12 of them have roles in "The Merry Wives of Windsor" ---- including the merry wives themselves, San Diego's Renee Gandola (Mistress Page) and Oceanside's Grace Delaney (Mistress Ford).
The production's stage manager is also an academy graduate. "I wanted to give students an opportunity, right out of the gate, to utilize the new skills they just picked up," Bishop said. "It's quite a good feeder program for us." Of all of Shakespeare's plays, Bishop said, he selected "Merry Wives" to open the 2002-03 theater season at MiraCosta because it's so much fun.

"It's a romp," he said. "It's an uplifting, funny play, and of all the Shakespeare plays it might be the most appealing to both the students and the audience."
Legend has it that Shakespeare wrote "The Merry Wives of Windsor" because Queen Elizabeth so enjoyed the secondary character of portly knight Sir John Falstaff in the "Henry IV" plays that she asked Shakespeare to write another play in which Falstaff was the romantic lead.

In the play, Falstaff ---- a renowned drunkard, womanizer and schemer ----- has sent identical love letters to two married women in hopes of seducing them and gaining access to their husbands' fortunes. When the wives compare notes, they decide to take revenge on Falstaff by playing a series of elaborate tricks on him that cause him to be dumped into the river with a basket of laundry and trapped in Windsor Park, where he's haunted by spirits and fairies. "Imagine 'I Love Lucy' set in Shakespearean times and you've got 'Merry Wives of Windsor.' It's the same story," Bishop said.

"'Merry Wives' is as funny and entertaining as any comedy out there right now." Bishop has set the play in the Tudor era of 1540, and he has trimmed arcane references and excessive character development from the script to keep the action moving. With the script trims and fly-in scenery that will eliminate time-consuming scene changes, the production should run just over two hours, with intermission.
The production will feature music from the Tudor era sung by an a cappella quartet led by Toni Billante, a bass singer who also stars in the play as Francis Ford.

Falstaff will be played by San Diego actor Richard Baird, who played Benedick in MiraCosta's production of Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing" two years ago. Because there are only a few women's roles in "Merry Wives" as written, Bishop has turned some parts ---- such as the tavern-keeper and some pages --- into female characters so he could cast more women actors.