THE HUMAN CHESS GAME
in the Memory Garden
The beginnings of Grovemont Theater start with Stephen Moorer, Dan Gotch, John Rousseau, and Julie Hughett. Stephen's earliest theatre experiences include being a student and later a CETA apprentice at Children's Experimental Theatre. Dan met Stephen in 1977 at Carmel High School. Dan was teaching a summer school program in theatre arts, and Stephen was "the kid with all the keys." During that period Dan was working as Artistic Director/Production Manager at the Cherry Foundation, and in 1981 he and Stephen worked together to establish a "New Play Series." This was such a success at the Cherry Foundation that in 1982 Stephen decided to found Grovemont Theater (for Pacific Grove/Monterey, of course) and do the same kind of thing - to produce the newest, most interesting, primarily off-Broadway plays. During this same period Stephen was working at the California Repertory Theatre, an Equity theatre in what is now The American Tin Cannery. That's where he met John Rousseau who was doing tech there, primarily building sets. John joined Grovemont in 1984 as the Technical
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THE HUMAN CHESS GAME in the Memory Garden |
From its beginning the free Monterey Bay TheatreFest had all its continuing basic elements - THE HUMAN CHESS GAME, THE FAIRY TALE THEATRE, an open-mic variety section, a classic production, plus Arts and Crafts Fairs. Marcia Gambrell Hovick created and directed the first two years of Fairy Tale productions; then John Rousseau took over to create and direct his unique, rather wacky, version of FAIRY TALE THEATRE which continue to the present. THE HUMAN CHESS GAME concept goes all the way back to France in the 1800s where it was presented at Versailles. Classic productions at TheatreFest were either presented on the Plaza mainstage or in the Memory Garden. The plays could be by Shake-speare, Moliere, Chekhov, or perhaps originals written by local playwrights such as Dan Gotch's THE LEGEND OF ZORRO. In 1988 Grovemont put up a tent and for three years presented musicals - THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE, SOUTH PACIFIC, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, and THE LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS, among others. TheatreFest has continued each summer for a maximum of 18 weeks when the tent was in use to its current 4-week version.
Grovemont was essentially "homeless" until 1986 when it took out a lease on what it called the Grovemont Theater Arts Center, on Hoffman Street in New Monterey, near the Pacific Grove line. The building's prior use had been as a Scientology recruitment center, Meals on Wheels and a beauty salon. The theatre started as a 50 seat house, but when Meals on Wheels moved to its present location in Pacific Grove, Grovemont was able to expand the theatre to a 90 seat house. They continued with the "new plays" concept staging numerous plays including CRIMES OF THE HEART, DUET FOR ONE, HOW I GOT THAT STORY, EL SALVADOR and THE FIFTH OF JULY. At the Arts Center in 1986, Julie Hughett became involved as an actress/stage manager and joined the staff as Production/Finance Manager/Artist-in-Residence in 1988.
In 1987 the Grovemont Board hired Barbara Kibbe through a grant from the Packard Foundation as Management Consultant, and in 1989 she did a feasibility on the theatre group buying a building. In 1990, Grovemont took out a "lease with option to buy" on the Monterey Playhouse on Washington Street in Monterey and opened in March of 1991 with THE RAINBOW BAR AND GRILL. They kept their lease on the Hoffman location, primarily renting it out to other theatre companies during the second year. In 1993 the Board and staff chose to leave the Monterey Playhouse and in May-June of 1994, Grovemont presented EQUUS as their final show at the Theater Arts Center. Additional plays presented at the Playhouse included BOUNCERS, THE ILLUSION, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR, and NUNSENSE I and II.
In the meantime, both Stephen and David Lewis (then chairman of the Grovemont Board) independently had found out that the Golden Bough movie theatre in Carmel was for sale. This had originally been a venue for live theatre, in fact in the early '90s Grovemont had used the Circle Theatre space for rehearsal space and costume storage. In early 1994 enough funding had been gathered to place a down payment on the theatre. Since they were now in Carmel, they renamed their company the more all-encompassing Pacific Repertory Theatre (usually shortened to Pacific Rep or PRT). The first productions opened in March of 1995 - DEATH OF A SALESMAN in the main theatre and LA BETE in the Circle Theatre, both staged by Stephen Moorer. Pacific Repertory Theatre continued doing new theatre plus some classic theatre productions. The theatre had two venues, the upstairs mainstage, called the Golden Bough Playhouse, and the smaller downstairs, called the Circle Theatre of the Golden Bough. The mainstage theatre can seat 300, so Pacific Rep decided to add musical productions such as GUYS AND DOLLS and A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC to their mainstage schedule, in addition to such past productions as CYRANO DE BERGERAC, CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF, MOLLY SWEENEY, PASSION, and INHERIT THE WIND. The Circle Theatre has hosted such past productions as FOREVER PLAID, BEIRUT, OLD WICKED SONGS, LA BETE, SYLVIA and HOW I LEARNED TO DRIVE. Timewise this corresponded to adding musicals to their play schedule at the Outdoor Forest Theatre. In the mid '90s they expanded their season at the Outdoor Forest Theatre to mid-October, presenting a musical such as THE WIZARD OF OZ or PETER PAN, followed by Pacific Rep's annual Shakespearean presentation.
Beginning with the first days of TheatreFest Pacific Rep has presented the works of William Shake-speare, including it's now legendary use of the hyphen in the famous author's name. You might say Stephen is "obsessed" with the authorship issue, whose main proponent is currently Edward deVere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, as the real author of the Shake-speare plays. In October, 2001, Pacific Repertory Theatre will, for the second time, host the annual conference of the International Shakespeare Oxford Society - at the Golden Bough Playhouse. The first TheatreFest Shake-speare production, presented in the Memory Garden, was ROMEO AND JULIET. In 1990 the productions at the Outdoor Forest Theatre were renamed "The Carmel Shake-speare Festival" after Herbert Heron's original Carmel Shakespeare Festival which had begun at that outdoor theatre in the early 1940's. Sometimes Pacific Rep would present Shake-speare at the Outdoor Forest Theatre in rep simultaneously with Shake-speare at the Golden Bough Playhouse or the Circle Theatre. Some of those productions included JULIUS CAESAR, HENRY V, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE and A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.
Part of Grovemont/Pacific Rep is their outreach programs. This includes TheatreFest which has been presented free of charge since 1984. By 1986 FAIRY TALE THEATRE had extended to performances at Monterey County Free Libraries, originally initiated because John Rousseau's mother, who lived in King City, went to their Free Library suggesting they bring in the Fairy Tale Theatre to perform. This evolved into a serious touring wing from 1986 - 1994, and their first tour was to the King City Library. Another outreach project is the Actors in the Adobes program. This started in 1986 and continued through 1999 because the City of Monterey wanted something lively to increase attendance at the adobes. Actors in the Adobes was successfully co-produced with various city and local agencies using on-site re-enactments of episodes of California history. Lastly, Pacific Rep rents the Golden Bough to such diverse groups as the Carmel Bach Festival, the Monterey County Symphony, Dance Kids, Inc., and the Monterey Opera Association.
With their July/August 2001 production of Chekhov's THE CHERRY ORCHARD, Pacific Rep will be establishing a relationship with Actor's Equity, the union of professional actors and stage managers. The production is an adaptation by Olympia Dukakis and her husband, the actor Louis Zorich, who will also be directing the production. The Equity actors being hired for the production include brother and sister Apollo and Olympia Dukakis and father and daughter Louis and Christina Zorich. By expanding it's relationship with Actor's Equity, Pacific Rep will enable local actors appearing in their productions to gain "Equity points," eventually earning the option to become professional Equity actors themselves.
Pacific Repertory Theatre is always on the move, always coming up with new ideas. In 2001 they will launch "Royal Blood," a ten-play cycle of Shake-speare's Histories to be presented between 2001 and 2004. It will feature the West Coast premiere of the newly attributed Shake-speare work, THE REIGN OF EDWARD III plus the West Coast premiere of THOMAS OF WOODSTOCK, a play thought to be an early Shake-speare script, the prelude to RICHARD II. With three venues, sometimes the play-goer will be able to see three productions in one day. And just this last week, after a long but successful capitol campaign, Pacific Rep has paid off the mortgage and now owns the Golden Bough Playhouse outright!
The success of the theatre can be attributed to its creative and hard-working staff and actors, its financial donors, its loyal patrons, and its 100+ volunteers known as Friends of PRT who usher at Pacific Rep productions, sell the concessions, stuff envelopes, and just provide support and willing hands wherever needed. They're the ones who greet you when you come to the productions. New Friends are always welcome; call Julie Hughett at 622-7206 to learn how you can become a part of Pacific Repertory Theatre.