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If you\u2019ve ever been to a Renaissance Faire, you may have run into Dan Kostelec from Peckville.<\/p>\n
He would have worn a doublet and frilly shirt and likely invited audience members to join him onstage \u2014 as characters, set pieces or even props \u2014 in send-ups of Shakespeare plays.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I\u2019m doing \u2018Twelfth Night\u2019 or \u2018The Tempest,\u2019 they both have shipwrecks, so I might invite people to be the ships,\u201d Kostelec said in a telephone interview. \u201cIf someone is wearing a scarf, I might say, \u2018Oh, you can be the ocean waves.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can be everything from the balcony in \u2018Romeo & Juliet\u2019 to the wall in \u2018A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
That \u201cMidsummer\u201d wall with its famous chink, through which young lovers \u201cPyramus\u201d and \u201cThisbe\u201d communicate with each other, may well be the next opportunity local audience members have to portray part of a set.<\/p>\n
Kostelec will present \u201cMidsummer: A Gaye Olde Tyme (Almost A Musical)!\u201d as part of the Scranton Fringe Festival. His performances are set for 6 p.m., Oct. 2 and Oct. 5, at the Strange Birds venue on Capouse Avenue.<\/p>\n
The Scranton Fringe Festival kicks off Oct. 1 and features dozens of productions.<\/p>\n
Describing his show as \u201cfun for all ages,\u201d Kostelec said he designed it to be accessible, \u201cno matter how much you may have hated Shakespeare in school.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s entirely audience interactive,\u201d said Kostelec, who created his Shakespeare Approves! comedy series 20 years ago to answer a challenge from Chuck Romito, a founder of the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire in Lancaster County.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re familiar with Shakespeare\u2019s \u201cA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream,\u201d you\u2019ll know why fairy wings and a donkey\u2019s head are part of the costuming. You\u2019ll likely see them before the show \u201creaches its ultimate, ridiculous conclusion,\u201d Kostelec said, adding the show is \u201cmore than slightly absurd, and it moves at breakneck speed.\u201d<\/p>\n
When he\u2019s not performing, Kostelec said, he will try to take in as many of the other Scranton Fringe Festival shows as he can.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Fringe Festival gives you the opportunity to try something new,\u201d he said. \u201cIt lets the artists and audiences stretch their boundaries. A lot of amazing, long-running shows began as this kind of experimental theater, like \u2018The Fantasticks,\u2019 or \u2018The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged\u2019, which started at a Renaissance Faire.\u201d<\/p>\n
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