Returning actor enjoys Shakespeare in the Park collaboration

Each year Felicia Bertch has to miss the first day of classes at the Texas university where she leads a theater program to perform at Shakespeare in the Park in Wheaton.

But for reasons beyond the thrill of performing or the expression of bringing a 1600s-era play to life in a suburban park, Bertch says the scheduling glitch is worth it.

She's one of roughly 45 Wheaton College alumni, students and professional actors who have come together each of the past five years to stage a Shakespeare production at the Memorial Park band shell at 208 W. Union Ave.

The plays are a partnership between Arena Theater at Wheaton College, led by Mark Lewis and Andy Mangin, and Wheaton Park District.

“The kind of community that we develop between the graduates and the undergrads is so refreshing and inspiring and restorative and encouraging,” says Bertch, a 2002 Wheaton College graduate who majored in English.

“We throw this show together so fast. There's a level of trust and a level of joy and delight in just the human experience that draws us together. It's incredibly meaningful.”

Bertch gives big props, too, to the Workout Theater ensemble at the college, which she joined her senior year. She says it helped springboard her to seek a master's degree in acting and to land her job as head of a bachelor's of fine arts in theater program at the University of Texas at Arlington.

Coming back to Wheaton each summer for about three weeks of rehearsals leading up to the Shakespeare shows allows Bertch to work on stage movements, acting and collaborating with the rest of the impromptu company.

“It's good for my program, too, for me to be out working as a professional,” she says. “It really helps keep me on my toes.”

In this year's production of “The Tempest” by William Shakespeare, Bertch is set to play Ariel, a spirit who “makes a lot of things happen” to one of the main characters, a magician named Prospero, while he is living on an island.

The shows, set to take place Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Aug. 30, 31 and Sept. 1, also will feature a small team of other actors helping Bertch physically and vocally make the magic of Ariel come to be.

A band of professional musicians, also largely with connections to Wheaton College, will accompany the play in a style yet to be chosen.

In recent past productions, “A Midsummer Night's Dream” was accompanied by traditional Irish tunes, while “Much Ado About Nothing” featured an ‘80s pop serenade.

“I think music supports Shakespeare's work so much. It's so fun,” Bertch says. “It's fun to have a different genre and play around with what that sound can do and how it can support the show itself — and the story.”

While the crew is rehearsing, Bertch says members call it quits early a few days for Wheaton College graduates now working as professionals in the field to share their stories, accomplishments, and ups and downs since leaving campus.

“Its great for the undergrads to hear. There's not one way to go on and do your life and be a professional theater artist,” Bertch says. “It's encouraging for the graduates, too.”

With such a bond built each year among the actors, directors, crew members and musicians, Bertch says each performance becomes a real treat for audiences.

“The show is like the icing on the cake,” she says. “It's so great to work on something artistically together.”