Bard in the Bowl
I love trouble. I always seem to find myself in it. The first bit of trouble I found myself in here in Ojai was the movement to save the Matilija oak that cascaded over what is now the Iron Pan restaurant. I sang Impossible Dream' for the rally to save the oak the night before its demise, organized by everyone's favorite hellraiser, Danny Miller.
The morning of the massacre I was happily with my San Antonio students presenting our enchanting production of 'Midsummer Niight's Dream,' and avoided the television news cameras that caught an unflattering clip of Danny's sunscreen-smeared face and shoulders and the classic front page photo of Anita Hendricks being dragged from blocking the approaching crane as sawdust dropped like snow.
I tell all this in a roundabout way of making an announcement my next bit of trouble: a gathering for support to save the Ojai Shakespeare Festival. For those of you who havent' been watching, it wasn't here this year. And there is a faction of diehards working toreturn it next year. Like many Ojai staples, it's been pulling a slow vanishing act. I'm on the Community Advisory Board, and, like many others on this board, have not been asked for my two-cents. finally was and this is what's come out of it. There's a commuity gathering at Glen Muse on October 4th. A pot luck from 6 to 7 and a meeting following going til about 9. I sat in on the planning of this gathering and the hot air has been released, soyou'll get j'ust-the-facts-ma'am' on what it's going to take to get the OSF back up and running for its 25th anniversary in 2007.
There won't be cranes to lie in front of but there will be a lot of work to do to revive this organization and make it survive another 100 years. Fresh community support is what is being asked and as a member of the community advisory board, I can assure you no one will be arrested. Bring some food, drink and two cents to throw in. 815 Libbey Avenue.
| Permalink | author bio | 
Comments (2)
I was wondering about this... thanks for posting the heads-up. The Shakespeare Festival is an essential part of the Ojai community.
Comment #1 Posted by: Tyler | October 2, 2006 12:48 PM
I was a reporter for thee local paper when that spry, youthful oak was callously cut to arrest the spread of cracks in the cement. That tree more than shaded a deli, panaderia and sport shack. Its life diverted and uplifted awareness from the architecture of an aesthetic abscess. As it fell, limb by lovely limb, I peered into the most should-ridden and privileged shame of Ojai. I saw a true vision of blight in a brick building and in the rundown, rotten characters of its care-less-cuz-i-want-more-takers. That essence was captured and perfectly by the digital image i snapped of a white-haired woman's snarling grin whose dirty dollars razed a community treasure and effectively paved over the remnants of a collective ideal of progressive protest. Those few days in the spring of 2001 were certainly the most emotionally charged, poignantly powerful and vividly memorable moments I witnessed as a noobie Ojai newster. Sacred nature straddled and strangled and shat upon in a most unholy display of depraved 'merican values. This brief moment in Ojai awoke me to the vastly diverse subcultural community I had been welcomed into. From this experience and others surrounding it, I found some of my closest friends and a fondness for the soul of a community that enriches me to this day. Thanks D, for the blast of nostalgia, and net-guru Tyler, who I synched to through that whole oz-wonka-taine groovy crew. Merging with like-minded beings illuminated the clear distinction for me between the criminal destruction of corrupted, old-guard, greed and the sweet treasures of till-dawn Danny dancing in the loyal halls of disorderly outlaws.
Comment #2 Posted by: Chris Wilson | October 4, 2006 09:40 PM