by Laura Monteros
Pictured: scenes from Shakespeare were performed at the Theatre Americana festival.
Music, dance, art, Shakespeare, and even a cute pooch didn’t draw in the crowds at Theatre Americana’s first Festival of the Arts in Farnsworth Park on Saturday. Whether this was due to summer heat, the soccer Gold Cup game at the Rose Bowl, or just being festivaled-out, Altadenans were scarce.
The festival was an ambitious undertaking, with performances in the amphitheater from early afternoon to late evening and an arts and crafts exhibit in Davies Hall all afternoon. This reporter caught the Sue B. Dance Company and Theatre Americana as well as getting acquainted with Bella the dog.
Bella, along with human friends Kathy Hart, Faye Chan and Brian Stauffer, represented Lifeline for Pets, a non-profit agency that rescues pets and places them in homes. They have a no-kill policy. The one-year-old Chihuahua/beagle mix has a foster family who is relocating for work, so she needs a new home soon. She is all ready to go (license, shots, neutering) and comes with some handy-dandy equipment.
Bella was not the only non-art exhibit at the festival. Remi Dayle of Amblin Massage brought two massage chairs to demonstrate her mobile massage service.
Inside Davies Hall, there were some familiar faces and some new ones: Ngene Mwaura with his recycled art, watercolorists Kathleen Swyadan and Karen Bagnaard, Lisa George, who recently exhibited at the Coffee Gallery, and photographer Matthew Reamer of Eco-Prints displaying photos in recycled frames.
Mwaura paints discarded objects such as skateboards, fan blades, and split baseball bats, but he also has a bit of the performance artist in him. He paints large-scale works to live jazz music in clubs around Los Angeles. He also has small, inexpensive original pieces and reproductions.
“There’s a population that can’t afford original art,” Mwaura says. “I still want to talk to them. I get ideas from them.”
Lynda Pyka, who makes “fascinators”—hair decorations—from vintage millinery and other found objects also hopes to provide folks with affordable jewelry. Her “Poor Little Rich Girl” section offered an array of laminated necklaces for whatever the buyer could afford to pay.
Recycling seemed to be popular at the festival. Lynn Matthiesen of Lynn’s Linens uses vintage handkerchiefs, towels, and table linens to create sachets and other items, and Anita Finnegan’s hand-braided jewelry and Nina E.K. Ehlig’s creations use both new and collected items.
Out at the amphitheater, Sue B. Dance Company had some mean tap dancers, followed by a circle of little girls who danced their little pink hearts out.
Theatre Americana presented four scenes from Shakespeare plays, complete with full costumes and two period dances. The scenes were from The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado about Nothing, Midsummer’s Night Dream, and Romeo and Juliet.
For Theatre Americana’s upcoming events, check out the website at www.theatreamericana.com
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Laura Monteros writes about Altadena for several online publications.
