Free Shakespeare in the Park kicks off two-month run of 'Antony and Cleopatra' across Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO - Free Shakespeare in the Park began this weekend in the Bay Area, with the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival opening a two-month run of "Antony and Cleopatra" on Saturday night in Cupertino. Another performance is scheduled for 6 p.m. at Cupertino's Memorial Park.

Elizabeth Carter and Jeremy Ohta Lee, who play the title roles, said opening night offered standout moments both on stage and off.

"One of the highlights was just having the experience of the live audience and to hear them laugh, to hear gasps, to hear applause at scenes that they felt really resonated with them," Carter said.

Ohta Lee said the performance brought an unexpected reunion.

"After the show, a friend of mine from high school, Las Lomas in Walnut Creek, where I took my first drama classes, showed up with his kids, and they got to see the show," Ohta Lee said. "I had been in Midsummer Night's Dream with him way back in the day, and so it was fun to see the next generation come in and see the shows."

Carter described the play as a more mature counterpart to one of Shakespeare's best-known works.

"I love to think about Antony and Cleopatra as a little bit the mature version of Romeo and Juliet," Carter said. "You have people who are drawn together, they're very different cultures. And the beautiful thing about the play is it also is political. They are two very strong, very powerful people, and Cleopatra is the queen of an entire kingdom, or queendom, in Alexandria."

Ohta Lee said the play's themes of power and personal politics still resonate.

"You see what happens when power is consolidated into a few, and what happens when it's mixed up with all of these interpersonal connections and drama," Ohta Lee said. "It really is Romeo and Juliet plus the world." He said the play also explores failure, particularly for a character like Antony, who has rarely experienced it. "The tragedy part of it comes fast and quick and furiously."

Carter said performing outdoors for free brings its own challenges and rewards.

"Heat, sun, bugs are the challenges," Carter said. "The joy is that anyone can walk by and see it and stop and sit down and enjoy a production for free with other people laughing, feeling. That feeling of accessibility for free Shakes is really, really powerful."

Ohta Lee said audience members have shown up in costume, including in togas, and that performing for a full lawn creates a distinct feeling on stage.

"You look out there and the feeling when you're on the stage and you see that the whole lawn is filled with people and they are locked in — that's something for me," said Ohta Lee, who is performing in Shakespeare in the Park for the first time. "It's a glorious feeling for us on the stages, and it's exciting that people take away so much excitement."

Carter, who is Black, said representation on stage carries particular meaning for her.

"As a black woman, as an actor for many, many years, I love it when I see kids out there and they're like, 'Oh, I could be that too. I could be a queen. I could be out there. I could say these words,'" Carter said. "Being able to move people in that way is just the most delicious part."

Ohta Lee said the production also reflects the diversity of its audience.

"When a work of art is representative of the audience, of the world that we live in, it's exciting," Ohta Lee said. "I think we have a fantastic production here that shows the Bay Area and others just dropping in what our world looks like."

The production continues at Cupertino's Memorial Park Amphitheater on Saturdays and Sundays at 6 p.m. through this weekend and next. It then moves to Redwood City's Red Morton Park from Aug. 15-30, before concluding in San Francisco starting Labor Day weekend at McLaren Park's Jerry Garcia Amphitheater, with performances on Saturday, Sunday and Labor Day at 2 p.m. for more info, visit sfshakes.org.

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