The creative treasure in Topanga is the place to see Shakespeare and more
The treasure that is the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum is celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer. The little open-air theater set amongst the oaks in Topanga Canyon has been delivering the most captivating theater, music, education, and, of course, its specialty, Shakespeare, for half a century.
The theater company, the name of which is derived from the Latin meaning “theater of plants,” was originated by Will Geer. Geer was not only a well-known actor, he was a trained botanist and Shakespeare aficionado. In fact, when Geer built the theater himself, he made sure every plant ever mentioned in Shakespearean writing was grown on the acreage surrounding the outdoor amphitheater.
Ellen Geer is Will’s daughter and the artistic director of the Theatricum Botanicum. From the get-go, she’s been with the theater company, which has brought joy and delighted audiences.
But the little theater troupe wasn’t founded under joyous circumstances.
In the 1950s, when Will Geer was a successful movie actor and before he gained greater fame on “The Waltons” TV series playing Grandpa Walton, Geer was also a labor organizer and social activist. During the McCarthy era, Geer refused to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities. His Hollywood career was sunk for two decades when he and fellow liberal artists were blacklisted. Ellen Geer has previously said her father “was not in any way going to victimize any of his friends. He refused to testify and he wouldn’t say whether he was a communist or not. Papa never joined anything.”
Without work, Geer was forced to regroup. He sold his home in Santa Monica and moved his family to what was then inexpensive property in Topanga Canyon. He had a degree in horticulture and literally fed his family by living off the land.
Soon, Geer was staging plays at his little theater. Other blacklisted actors and musicians joined him, creating an artists’ colony of sorts visited by luminaries such as Burgess Meredith and Woody Guthrie.
When “The Waltons” hit big and Geer had money again, he poured it into officially creating Theatricum Botanicum as a nonprofit in 1973. The first performances were free to the public. Folk concerts were staged with the likes of Pete Seeger and Arlo Guthrie. Concerts are still a big component of programming at the theater.
Every summer for 50 years, the company produces four plays in repertory. “You can actually see the whole series of plays in one weekend if you’re coming from further away,” Ellen commented.
There’s still time to catch this year’s repertory season featuring “Macbeth,” Shakespeare’s spooky tale of a lethal royal couple with murderous ambitions; Theatricum’s signature production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” perfectly set in Topanga’s forest-like surroundings; “Queen Margaret’s Version of Shakespeare’s War of the Roses,” directed and compiled by Ellen Geer; and “A Perfect Ganesh” by five-time Tony Award winner Terrence McNally, an American playwright often referred to as “the bard of American theater” and “one of the greatest contemporary playwrights the theater world has yet produced.”
Geer reflected on “Queen Margaret,” which she adapted from Shakespeare’s “Henry VI,” parts 1,2,3 and “Richard III.”
“I put them all together from a woman’s point of view, which is Queen Margaret if one knows the plays at all,” she said. “It gives you a feeling of what a 32-year war, what happens to the women. In these plays you’re not going to get to see ‘Henry VI’ part 1, nobody’s going to stage ‘Henry VI’ Part I. It can’t draw an audience.
“By putting it together I think it serves our time very well. We just finished a 24-year war. I always like to see what happens to the women and the children after these kinds of conflicts happen and Shakespeare does it beautifully. I follow the main woman, Queen Margaret, as she goes from 15 to the time she gets kicked out of England and goes back to France. It’s fascinating.”
On Sept. 8, the poetry and music of Leonard Cohen will be celebrated as part of the venue’s Under the Oaks musical performances. On Oct. 8, Americana is celebrated at Theatricumwith its annual Harvest Festival. This year celebrates Woody Guthrie, who used to live at the property. These are just some of the highlights of the happenings taking place at the Theatricum Botanicum this season.
Education and arts enrichment happen year-round with classes and workshops for all ages to continue Theatricum Botanicum’s mission of passing on a love of community, language, music, theater, and art to the next generation and for another 50 years to come.
