PREVIEW: 'Retired' Dunn isn't.

To get things Dunn

By Mark Langton

Article Launched: 02/26/2008 07:12:26 PM PST, Marin Independent Journal

When director James Dunn enters a theater in Marin, you’d think it was the pope arriving.

Come to think of it, now that he’s turned 75 (Dunn’s 75th birthday was Feb. 26), he does sort of look like a pope right out of Central Casting. Indeed, as he joins his College of Marin (COM) cast for a final week of tech rehearsals for his latest production of William Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” he looks every bit the bemused, elfin pope.

For example, when he enters a room, he glides in, often with what appears to be a solemn entourage. He rarely moves his head from side to side, holding it the way a pontiff might. Many student actors, upon his arrival, have been known to genuflect -- still others escape into solitary prayer.And then, of course there's that whole infallibility thing.

“It’s about discipline,” says Dunn, a former Marine. “The Marines helped me to become an organized director, and that’s what I teach. I tend to stress that with actors. I tell them: Be disciplined. Be organized. Learn your lines. Be on time.”

Ross Valley Players’ production manager Bob Wilson, who has considered Dunn to be his best friend for over 25 years, describes Dunn as a man of many parts. “There is this one part – from a part of his life that really is so important to him – that is the gruff Marine. I believe it is a tool. He uses it to challenge people. To get things done. Then there is the artist part, who is, well…kind of a softie.”

Wilson added, chuckling, “And if you quote me, I’ll deny it.”

Dunn founded the drama department at College of Marin (COM) in 1964. He’d attended COM himself, as a student, and even played on the school’s football team (“We lost then, too,” Dunn says.). He served as a Marine Corp reservist during the Korean War, returning later to COM as an instructor. After 30 years of teaching and heading the department Dunn announced his “retirement” in 2003.

Some retirement. He still returns every spring to teach a Shakespeare class and direct a play; he continues to direct and participate in shows for local companies, like the Marin Theatre Company, the Marin Shakespeare Company, Ross Valley Players and Northern California Shakespeare Co (formerly Shakespeare at Stinson); and, as the ongoing artistic director of the Mountain Play, he continues to bring an extravagant Broadway musical to the top of Mt. Tam every year. He hasn’t missed one since he started doing them, in 1983.

Dunn has directed “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream” many times before, but this production promises to be the most lavish. (“Robin Williams was in my first one here,” says Dunn of his former student. “He carried a spear.”) All three disciplines of COM’s Performing Arts Department (drama, dance and music) will collaborate on this production, which opens Friday, Feb.29 in the Fine Arts Theatre.

This fairy tale about love, says Dunn, featuring Shakespeare at his funniest, and most romantic, will be performed with a full orchestra on-stage, playing a score composed for the play in 1826 by a 17-year-old Felix Mendelssohn. Patricia Polen's period costumes and Ronald Krempetz's sets are said to be so elaborate and ornate they threaten to "out-act" the actors says David A. Moss, who plays Oberon, king of the fairies -- in a suit of lights.

"I call it, 'Shakespeare On Ice,'" quipped the former stand-up comedian. "The audience will be like," Moss shifts into a another voice, "'Why is he SPEAKING when there is already WAY too much hap-pen-ing to me-e-e-e...?!,' you see, so we're really going to traumatize these people, basically. Yes. Really bring it."

Choreography will be by Sandra Tanner.

“I think we’ve got a pretty good cast. I’ve got Moss (who starred in last year’s “Othello”) as my Oberon. Bruce Vieira (who played Tevye in Dunn’s Mt. Play production of “Fiddler on the Roof) plays Bottom. I’ve got Steven Deitz (“A Few Good Men,” “A Comedy of Errors”); plus Allison Peltz….”

Lesley Currier, co-founder of the Marin Shakespeare Co., for whom Dunn will direct “Amadeus” next summer, agrees with Wilson. “The gruff Marine is useful to him as a teacher. That other part? That’s the part he creates with.”

Currier describes Dunn as having the soul of a 20 year old and the stamina of a 40 year old. “And we all hope he'll continue making theatre for another 60 years…I'm delighted to wish Jim a happy 75th birthday.”

Moss added, “I just want to say this: Jim, you aren’t fooling anybody. You try to come off as this gruff old Marine, but we all know that inside you have the heart of a teddy bear. Give it up."

Ask Dunn how he, himself, reconciles both Marine and artist, and he merely laughs. “I have absolutely no idea,” he says.

“I like to use that great Geoffrey Rush line from the movie, ‘Shakespeare In Love.’ Whenever he’s asked anything, particularly how it is that any of the chaos manages to come together on opening night, Rush always answers the same way:

"'It's a mystery!'"

IF YOU GO:

What: “A Midsummer-Night’s Dream,” by William Shakespeare, directed by James Dunn.

Who: The College of Marin Performing Arts Department

Where: The Fine Arts Theatre on the Kentfield Campus (corner of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard. and Laurel Avenue)

When: Fridays and Saturdays, Feb. 29, March 1, 7, 8, 14 and 15 at 8 pm; Sundays, March 9 and 16 at 2 p.m.

Tickets: $18 general and $15 students and seniors. To reserve tickets, please call the College of Marin Box Office at 415-485-9385, or go to http://www.marin.cc.ca.us/ProgramDirectory/index.htm