Shakespeare actors heed the call of the wild | John Moore

Shakespeare wrote “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” 428 years ago, and that’s about how long Leigh Miller probably felt it took to finally realize his COVID-delayed dream of bringing free, professional outdoor Shakespeare to the south metro area.

It was well worth the wait.

Magical things happen in Shakespeare’s forest outside Athens, and Miller’s “Shakespeare in the Wild” was a magical experience from the moment you parked at the Goodson Recreation Center in Centennial and wandered into an open-space meadow in DeKoevend Park to a makeshift stage so perfect for its purpose you’d swear it was plopped there by the gods.

There between two divinely majestic trees hung a backdrop and strings of lights above a hand-carved wooden stage. In what passed with the swiftness of a warm breeze, director Sam Gregory and a mixed cast of seasoned and promising actors brought uncommon comedy and clarity to Shakespeare’s most beloved play, kindly abbreviated to 90 minutes. And they did it all with $10,000 in grassroots fundraising. 

Miller, a longtime local actor and first-time producer, first pitched the idea of free outdoor Shakespeare to South Suburban Parks and Recreation District officials in 2019, and he was quickly on a path to stage “The Tempest“ in the summer of 2020 — now forever known as “A Midsummer Night’s Never-Ending Nightmare.”

After two heavy shutdown years, Miller and Gregory smartly chose to lighten spirits by instead presenting “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the story of fickle gods toying with the course of true human love for their own bemusement.

Their entire cast was impeccable, but bringing them all together was not without its drama.

“Steve Wilson was born to play Bottom,” said his wife, Leslie O’Carroll.

The thing is, he wasn’t cast to play Bottom — she was. But when O’Carroll had to leave the show shortly before opening, Wilson jumped in as the weaver whose head is famously transformed into that of a donkey. Performing after only four rehearsals, Wilson had appreciative crowds eating out of the palm of his hoof. Bottom has a death scene during a play-within-the-play that Wilson put on like a master comedy class.

How much of it was Wilson and how much of it was O’Carroll? Hard to say because these are two comedy powerhouses whose idea of a fun night at home is working out each other’s stage bits. At a certain point, the two become interchangeable.

“When people say to me, ‘I’ve never met your husband,’ I always say, ‘Think of me with a beard,” said O’Carroll. “We’re the same person.”

O’Carroll, who played Bottom for the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in 2021, had worked out all of her comic bits during the rehearsal process — like, say, her decision to end the death scene by hanging herself on her own entrails and cutting off her head with a lightsaber. Wilson, who first played Bottom for  Compass Theatre back in 1997, went another way. He offed himself using two broad swords and a dagger to his eye. (That bit involved a pop-out Ping Pong ball that became a moment of instant legend.)

‘Midsummer’ was just one moment of 2022 glory for Wilson, the True West Awards’ Theatre Person of the Year in 2014. He was named Executive Artistic Director at CenterStage Theatre Company, a high-quality educational youth theater in Louisville. And he directed two of the year’s best musicals — The Candlelight’s “The Scarlet Pimpernel” and the Littleton Town Hall Arts Center’s “Newsies” (playing through Dec. 30). 

Wilson’s performance was made all the better by a surrounding, blue-chip ensemble including Miller, Shannon Altner, Iliana Barron, Grant Bowman, Mikah Conway, Mare Trevathan, Courtney Esser, Chris Kendall, Anne Marie Nest, Chelsea Frye, Karen A. Wibrew and Frank Oden. 

If it’s true what they say — that there’s nothing better than a warm Colorado summer evening under the stars at Red Rocks (and it is true) — then what Miller and Gregory delivered was the next best thing. (But the grass is so much softer.)

Look for “Shakespeare in the Wild” to return to the wild with “As You Like It” from Aug 18-27.

Note: The True West Awards, now in their 22nd year, began as the Denver Post Ovation Awards in 2001. Denver Gazette Senior Arts Journalist John Moore celebrates the Colorado theater community by revisiting 30 of the best stories from the past year without categories or nominations.