Live poetry writing, a workshop, readings and shows will honor Shakespeare’s roots and connect audiences.
The Helen Borgers Theatre will become a beacon for performed and written art this weekend, as the Long Beach Shakespeare Company ushers in its inaugural poetry festival.
Tens of poets and playwrights from Los Angeles and Long Beach will flock to the theater nestled in the cozy Bixby Knolls neighborhood to honor Shakespeare the only way they know how.
“Shakespeare is poetry to its core,” Long Beach Shakespeare Company Creative Director Holly Leveque said about the inspiration behind the company’s inaugural poetry festival. The second motivation behind the event, but certainly not the least, is Helen Borgers’ love for poetry.
As the theater’s namesake and company’s first and former creative director, Leveque wanted to honor Borgers’ legacy as she continued her first full season directing. Leveque also introduced the company’s first New Works Festival in July.
The festival will feature live poetry writing, three poetry readings all with different writers, a workshop and two shows.
Leveque partnered with one of her longtime friends and artists, Linda Ravenswood, who was a producer for the festival. Ravenswood helped curate the poetry readings, will teach a Shakespeare writing workshop and the duo will close out the event with a play directed by Ravenswood and starring Leveque.
The pair could hardly contain their excitement through a Zoom meeting on the morning of Oct. 3, both gushing about each other’s contributions and passion for poetry, plays and of course, Shakespeare.
Ravenswood and Leveque met a decade ago through a mutual friend, and have teamed up for performances in the past.
“A good poem is just a good story, and Holly really knows that and remembers and has a keen eye for history and things that are important and sacred,” Ravenswood said about her friend and colleague. “She remembers the core of everything is the word, is the poetry.”
Residents can watch the artistic team in action in the closing act of the poetry festival Friday night: an original play titled “How To Make A Monster” written by Ravenswood, directed by Brian Sonia Wallace and starring Leveque.
The play was first performed and starred in by Leveque almost 10 years ago, and this will be its third iteration. Ravenswood described it as a “bananas” tale about climate change and Indigenous and women’s rights; as a play that “breaks all the rules of playwriting.”
The weekend’s festivities will begin Friday evening just outside the Helen Borgers Theatre on Atlantic Avenue with a 30-minute live poetry writing session from seasoned poet Bernadette McCommish. Equipped with a vintage typewriter, McCommish will invite residents to request a poem about a subject of their choosing, then whip up a work of art that residents can take home with them.
Saturday kicks off with a Shakespearean writing workshop led by Linda Ravenswood, who has been a poet for 20 years and a playwright for 10 years. She also helped select poets for the three readings throughout the weekend, drawing from Los Angeles and Long Beach for artists.
“I wanted to keep the poets local, the poets that I most cherish,” Ravenswood said. “I’ve worked in the Los Angeles poetry scene since I was a teenager, and it’s been decades of getting to know our community so the scene is love and local.”
Leveque will direct a Shakespearean collection performance to wrap up the second night of the festival with “Shakespeare On The Dark Side.” The show will feature a collection of monologues ranging from “Hamlet” and “King Lear” to “Richard III” and “Macbeth.”
The show will satisfy the Shakespeare truthers, feature gender-bending roles and offer “something that’s a little bit more on the dark side than the theater has necessarily been doing in the last decade or so,” Leveque said.
The creative director described her collection as weird, and warned it may be a little “emotionally depressing” but said it’s sure to please patrons who crave “avant-garde and creepy” content.
The Long Beach Shakespeare Company’s Poetry Festival will take place from Oct. 6 to Oct. 8, with multiple events each day. Each event will be held at the Helen Borgers Theatre at 4250 Atlantic Ave. Tickets for each event are $13 and can be purchased at LongBeachShakespeare.org.
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