John Blondell's World is a Stage

Montecito’s award-winning director John Blondell is reaching new heights in his career. The Westmont theater arts professor will direct a play at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London. As part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad, the Globe offers “Globe to Globe,” featuring 37 international companies presenting every one of Shakespeare’s plays. The productions begin April 21 and continue for six weeks. Blondell’s task is directing Shakespeare’s “Henry VI, Part 3,” staged by actors from the National Theatre of Macedonia and performed in their language.

Before performing the show in Macedonia and London (May 12-13), Blondell directs an English version of “Henry VI, Part 3” for Lit Moon Theatre Company on Feb. 17-18, 23-25 at Center Stage Theatre in Santa Barbara. Tickets, which are $16.50-$26.50, are available through www.centerstagetheater.org and (805) 963-0408. Blondell has directed three other foreign-language projects, including his award-winning production of “The Wonderful Adventures of Nils.” He staged that play in the United States before taking it to Finland. “Performing “Henry VI” in Santa Barbara gives me a seven-week experience of the play, working with American actors using the play in English,” Blondell says. “It’ll give me a sense of what the important conversations are with the actors and their mental and emotional experiences.” He describes the play, which has the most battle scenes of any Shakespearean drama, as gripping and visceral. The rarely performed historical tragedy depicts the blood-saturated events of the English civil war known as the Wars of the Roses. “There are dizzying reversals and betrayals that drive the violent action,” Blondell says. “It also marks the rise of a truly memorable villain, Richard III, who sets forth on a rampage of murder and deceit.”

Blondell says that he tends to watch his collaborators as he directs a play in another language, whether they’re actors off-stage or assistants in the room with him. “I use them as mirrors to see what is going on,” he says. “I watch people watch the rehearsal to see what their body language is and what people pay attention to at a particular moment. And if I see them actually looking with their mouths open, that’s a good sign. Something has captivated them.” Language doesn’t represent as large a barrier as it would in the U.S. Blondell says it’s far more common in Europe for directors to undertake plays in a foreign language. “Working with actors is working with actors,” he says. “Whenever I open my mouth, I am constantly teaching the meaning of the play, the psycho-emotional situation of characters, et cetera.” Blondell has also learned to think of the text more musically. “I break the text into rhythms and tempos,” he says, “creating moments that have a particular kind of intensity — rhythmic variation, or tempo, or dynamic level.”

The Santa Barbara production features eight Lit Moon actors, including Westmont faculty member Victoria Finlayson and Westmont alumnae Kate Paulsen, Marie Ponce, Sara Reynolds and Diana Small. Other cast members are Brian Harwell, Stan Hoffman and Jeff Mills. Jim Connolly provides original music and Ted Dolas does the lighting. Blondell, who completed a doctorate from UC Santa Barbara, first earned critical acclaim with his 1989 productions of “Peter Pan” and “Table Manners.” Since then he has received many awards for his work with Westmont and Lit Moon, including three Shakespearean plays: “Henry V (2000),” “Much Ado About Nothing (2000),” “Hamlet (2001-04)” and “King Richard II (2006).” Blondell says that contributing to London’s vibrant cultural landscape humbles him. “I’m thrilled and grateful to the Globe for choosing me and this company,” he says. “I still pinch myself. I can’t believe it. I never imagined I’d have the opportunity to work there. I’m excited. I’m anxious. I’m thrilled.”   Special Guests and Events at Westmont:

• “Shakespeare’s Henry VI plays:  A Modern Perspective,” Randall Martin, the University of New Brunswick and editor of the Oxford Henry VI, Part 3.  Thursday, Feb. 16, 4 p.m., Adams 219

• “On Editing Shakespeare,” Randall Martin.  Friday, Feb. 17, 9:15 a.m., Westmont's Black Box Theatre

• “Directors Talk Henry,” Nikita Milivojevic, Novi Sad, Serbia; Adonis Filipi, Tirana, Albania; and John Blondell, Santa Barbara.  Friday, Feb. 17, 4 p.m., Adams 219