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Fair Oaks Sets Stage Outdoors: Theater Festival Revels in Competing With the Sounds of Summer.

Posted on: Sunday, 25 June 2006, 15:00 CDT

By Walter Yost, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Jun. 25--In the world of outdoor theater, actors can't be rattled when a stray cat wanders onstage.

"They go with the flow," Barbara Sestito said about the Fair Oaks Theatre Festival performers.

Sestito and her husband, Tony, president of the festival's board of directors, have been avid supporters of the annual theater event.

This is the festival's 24th summer season, and once again, performances will be in the Fair Oaks Veterans Memorial Amphitheatre.

The opening show is "Gypsy," playing at 8:30 p.m. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through July 23. The season kicked off Friday.

The second show, "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," will play at 7:30 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, Aug. 11-Sept. 10.

Rounding out the season is the children's show, "Puss in Boots," directed by Pamela Downs, at 10 a.m. and noon Saturdays, July 1-22.

It's another ambitious schedule for a festival that touts itself as Sacramento's "only truly community" theater.

The annual festival pays its way through fundraising, donations, box office receipts and community involvement.

Barbara Sestito said the secrets to the festival's success are its volunteers and about 300 members.

"They're very dedicated people doing this work," said Bob Irvin, who began directing festival productions in 1988.

Irvin, who is directing "Gypsy" and "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," is on the faculty at American River College's Theatre Arts Department. About 10 years ago, the festival partnered with the college to put on their summer performances.

"It's been a marvelous arrangement. They bring a technical ability we couldn't pay for," Sestito said. In return, the theater department gets a place to perform in the summer.

Everyone performing in the current festival productions is enrolled at American River and receives class credit, even 7- and 8-year-olds.

During its history, the festival has produced all of Shakespeare's comedies, along with works by Molière, Oliver Goldsmith, Neil Simon and Gilbert and Sullivan.

While Sestito said the festival "ran out of Shakespeare," it also became apparent that the audience wanted something else.

"They wanted musical comedies," she said.

This summer's production of "Gypsy," is a perfect example. The Broadway hit features songs like "Let Me Entertain You" and "Everything's Coming Up Roses."

With 31 performers, it also has the largest cast in festival history, including Deane Calvin as Mama Rose and Analise Langford as her daughter Louise.

Whether it's watching Gypsy Rose Lee or Charlie Brown, Irvin and others involved with the festival say there's nothing quite like a performance "without benefit of a roof."

For one thing, both audience and cast may have to contend with the sound of fire engines, helicopters, and in the midst of Fair Oaks Village, free-ranging chickens.

But there's also the starry sky and the refreshing evening breezes.

"There's something romantic about theater in the summer," Irvin said.

IF YOU GO What: Fair Oaks Theatre Festival's 24th season

Where: Veterans Memorial Amphitheatre, California Street and Fair Oaks Boulevard

Productions: "Gypsy" on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays through July 23 at 8:30 p.m.; "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, Aug. 11-Sept. 10 at 7:30 p.m.; "Puss in Boots" at 10 a.m. and noon Saturdays, July 1-22 (performances in Fair Oaks Community Clubhouse, adjacent to the amphitheater).

For more information: Call (916) 966-3683

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Sacramento Bee

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