Thankful to community for festival support

Editor,

Island Shakespeare Festival presented its first indoor production in January at WICA’s Zech Hall. “Shakespeare’s Other Women” attracted full houses with its virtuoso acting, creative directing and brilliant script by Scott Kaiser.

It was a thrill for the whole company as well as the board of directors to be able to offer such a polished, professional theatrical experience to our island. But it took more than just those of us who are part of ISF to pull this off.

The majority of our actors, directors, stage managers, set and costume designers come from off island. For the last eight years ISF has turned to the South Whidbey community to help us house all these talented people.

We are extremely grateful to all our hosts for opening their homes, guest houses, spare bedrooms and summer cottages to members of our company.

These arrangements have not only benefited ISF, they’ve fostered some beautiful relationships.

One of our hosts, Cynthia Tilkin, told us, “I truly loved hosting the stage manager, Angelica, for the second time. Although she had many long rehearsals and was not here day in and day out, I enjoyed every minute she was here. We had very special, fun times together and she was never an intrusion on my life. She was always very thoughtful and kept everything so neat and nice. I hope that Angelica comes again. Soon.”

And one of our actors, Sazi Bhakti said, “I can’t fully express how important and incredible my experience has been staying with community members. I feel like I found a new family on Whidbey last year.”

We are always looking for housing options on the South End for our company. Please contact us if you’re interested in hosting: info@islandshakespearefest.org

Thank you to all our hosts and to our whole community for your support of ISF. We absolutely could not do what we do without you.

Island Shakespeare Festival

Board of Directors

Rene Neff, President

Deborah Nedelman, Vice President