As they like it
The latest production of the Bard draws thousands to the Common
About two minutes before eight o'clock, the actors stand just off stage, sweating in their costumes and running lines in their heads. Carola Morrone, 27, the stage manager overseeing the 13th annual free showing of Shakespeare on Boston Common, whispers into a headset, running the production from a small white, wooden booth tucked in behind the audience.
"If we could please stand by . . ." she says.
It is opening night of Shakespeare on the Common, a Boston summer tradition since 1996. And, as actor Larry Coen sees it, nothing symbolizes the Boston summer better than this moment, unfolding in the center of the city each night until Aug. 3.
About 3,000 people sit on blankets beneath the elm and maple trees to see "As You Like It." They've slipped off their shoes and socks. They're barefoot in the grass, well supplied with stashes of chilled wine, and, for once, they have nowhere else to be.
The day is behind them, and so is the noisy, workaday rush of the city. The sirens in the distance? They're just ambiance now. The 94-degree heat, fading with the daylight? It's almost bearable, even welcome, says Dakota Butterfield, who arrived more than two hours before showtime to reserve a spot for her lawn chair right up front. Because if it's hot, then it's summer. And if it's summer in Boston, there will be Shakespeare.
"You know how some people start getting their seed catalogs out in February and start planning for spring? Not me," says Butterfield, 54, a Brookline mother of three. "I start thinking about Shakespeare on the Common."
According to the Citi Performing Arts Center - the Boston theater responsible for the annual free performance - nearly 900,000 people have attended these shows since the staging of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" 12 years ago. That performance, put on at Copley Square, not only captivated audiences, despite rains and high winds, but the imagination of a city where, we like to believe, we know a little something about culture.
Critics raved. One said the free, outdoor Shakespeare performance gave the city "an air of mystery and romance." A tradition was born, moving the following year to the Common, where it has been staged ever since. And people like Butterfield began planning their summer vacations around Boston's annual dance with the Bard.
"This is the time when the entire city, everybody in the city, comes together on one lawn," says Coen, one of the local actors in this year's show. "We all come together in one place and just think about things like love, think about things like family, think about things like power and magic, fate, and redemption."
Backstage now, on opening night, Coen and the other actors get ready. In the women's trailer, actresses apply their makeup in small mirrors while the folks in wardrobe steam wrinkles out of dresses and replace lost cuff links with sewn-on buttons.
The men in the trailer next door pass the time arguing. Is Keanu Reeves a great actor? (No, they agree.) But how about Colin Farrell?
"You hate him," actor Kelby T. Akin says.
"I don't hate him," actor Noah Tuleja replies.
The debate rages on as assistant state manager Elizabeth Bouchard enters to ask actor Fred Sullivan Jr. a simple question. "Fred," she says, "do you want to go see the blood?" She's talking about fake blood - the fake blood that will come out of a fake dead deer during the show. Sullivan walks off in costume to check it out while the clock ticks toward show time, 8 o'clock, and Carola Morrone holes up in her small white booth to run the show, and the people on the blankets outside begin to stir with anticipation in the heat.
There is graduate student Mike Truppi, 23, playing solitaire as he waits on his blanket for the rest of his friends to arrive. There is Michael Klein, 38, a sack of food in hand, scouting for a spot to watch the play with his wife and asking, "Is this little patch of grass taken?" There is Lois Andersen, a Concord artist waiting with her cousin Bjorn Jahren, in town on a visit from Norway, and there is little Cosette Gault, 3, sitting between her parents, Edward and Karen, in a pink summer shirt.
For as long as Cosette has been alive, she has been coming to Shakespeare on the Common.
And now it is time.
Morrone calls it from her booth.
"If we could please stand by. Standby Lights 4. Spot 2 on Orlando in Frame 3."
She checks in one last time through her headset to make sure the actors are ready. And then, with three simple words, the show begins.
"Lights 4 . . . Go."
The lights come up. The sky grows dark. The night is hot and bothered and there is a storm gathering in the west. But the people pay it no mind. They lose themselves in this story of love and family betrayal, forgiveness, and happily-ever-after endings.
It all can't mean much to Cosette Gault, who's just in preschool. But she stands at attention, anyway, nestled in between her parents, only taking her eyes off the actors on stage to nibble at a slice of pepperoni pizza in her mother's hand. Tonight the little girl will stay up well past her bedtime and her parents will not care.
Keith O'Brien can be reached at kobrien@globe.com. 