“The West Wing” actress Allison Janney knows what some might think when they hear “world theater” – dense, unfamiliar, inaccessible. And she has a bit of reassurance for them. “It’s safe,” she said. “Really.”
Her mentor, Colorado Festival of World Theatre co-founder Suzy Bassani, would add “funny.”
“I have tried to program this festival so that people will have enormous fun,” said Bassani, whose fete has blossomed into a 15-day celebration in its second year. “In honoring Jacques Lecoq, we are honoring the clown. So our emphasis is on puppets, masks, street theater.
“In bringing in Geoff Hoyle, we are bringing in the most brilliant clown working in America today,” she said. “I am telling you, no one will walk into that tent to see him and not walk out feeling joy. He’s our Buster Keaton.”
If Hoyle is our Keaton, then Janney “is our Maggie Smith,” Bassani said. “I have watched her grow, and from the first time I saw her, I knew she would make it.”
Janney, who has won four Emmys as the (now) chief of staff C.J. Cregg on NBC’s “The West Wing,” has made it all the way to the Broadmoor in Colorado Springs. There, she will host the festival’s opening gala tonight, featuring Broadway singer Michael Feinstein and the Peter Duchin Orchestra. That people will be paying $500 apiece terrifies her. “I haven’t hosted anything in my life,” she said.
All roads from her native Ohio to Colorado Springs, she said, lead back to her mother, Macy Janney. Those roads stop in New York, where Allison was Tony-nominated for “A View From the Bridge” in 1998, and L.A., where her film career has included “American Beauty,” “The Ice Storm” and “Primary Colors.”
Macy was an actress and homemaker who became best friends with Bassani in 1980 after the Italian moved to Dayton, Ohio, and started the Human Race Theatre Company. Allison was at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where she was directed by guests Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
Bassani moved to the Manitou Springs area in 1994 and started the world festival last year with actress Linda Purl. This year’s doubled program features 14 major programs from England, South Africa, Italy and Colorado.
“My mother and I are huge fans of Suzy Bassani’s,” said Janney. “She has this unbelievable spirit, and she has more energy to generate theater than I have ever had in my entire life. She’s a force that will not be denied by anybody.”
Bassani may need all that spirit to motivate reticent theatergoers who may have trouble entering unknown and possibly intimidating cultural landscapes peppered with harlequins, acrobatics and physical movement.
“I don’t think it will be a problem,” said Bassani, “because when theater is truly good, everyone in the world is going to want to see it. It doesn’t matter where it comes from.”
Among the highly regarded pieces to be performed are Ping Chong’s social drama “Undesirable Elements,” which explores the effects of culture on individuals who are born into one society but live as part of another; “Guerrino, the Knight,” an old-world pageant performed by the Colla family’s 200-year-old Italian marionettes; and “A Tale of a Tiger,” Boulderite Ami Dayan’s adaptation of a Dario Fo fable about a wounded soldier who is cared for by a tiger and her cub.
Janney doesn’t think of theater as either American or world. “I love all theater,” she said. “But she recalls her first exposure to non-American theater was when a visiting commedia dell’arte troupe performed at her college. She later was moved by the famed experimental German composer and choreographer Pina Bauche.
“I am also a big fan of Ping Chong’s,” she said. “I used to be a dancer and a figure skater, so the idea of using dance and text together is thrilling to me. But watching any performance piece has always been one of the most moving things I can ever do in my life. Going to see dance makes me cry. Going to see someone spill out their guts moves me; seeing people pour out their culture.”
Janney especially hopes the world festival brings out families.
“There just aren’t many international theater festivals in the United States, and so when these kinds of pieces are brought right into your backyard, you have to take advantage,” she said. “These are things your whole family can enjoy together and then talk about afterward as a shared experience. Do it for your kids, to broaden their horizons and enrich their lives.”
Janney reports for the seventh season of “The West Wing,” beginning Wednesday.
“I am extremely happy that we are all coming back next season,” she said. “I swear to you, though, that John Wells has not let us know who’s winning the election – even though we all have our opinions.”
The longer the show runs, however, the longer Janney is kept from her first love.
“I feel like I have only just scratched the surface of my theater career,” she said. “I can’t wait to get back and do more.”
Theater critic John Moore can be reached at 303-820-1056 or jmoore@denverpost.com.
The Colorado Festival of World Theatre take places at locations throughout Colorado Springs starting Saturday and running through July 31. Here are details on the festival:
“Hoyle in One:” Clown show (England), Woodland Park Tent, Saturday through Monday
“An Evening With Davis Gaines:” Show tunes (U.S.), Broadmoor, Saturday through Tuesday
“A Tale of a Tiger”: Fable (Boulder), Louisa Center, Sunday through Tuesday
K.T. Sullivan and Mark Nadler: Jule Styne cabaret, Broadmoor, Wednesday through July 24
“Sisters”: Drama (Ireland), Louisa Center, Wednesday through July 24
“Gumbo Jumbo”: Music and movement (England), Woodland Park Tent, Thursday through July 25
International Theatre Symposium: Keynote speaker Fay Lecoq, Colorado College, July 23-24
Sandra Reaves-Phillips: Jazz cabaret (U.S.), Broadmoor, July 23-26
“An Evening With Queen Victoria”: Drama (England), Louisa Center, July 26-30
“Rocky Mountain Follies”: Western cabaret (Colorado), Broadmoor, July 27-28
“Undesirable Elements”: Social drama (U.S.), Woodland Park, July 27-29
“Guerrino, the Knight”: Marionettes (Italy), Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, July 28-30
“Arlecchino! Servant of Two Masters”: Harlequins (Italy), Armstrong Hall, July 29-30
“Tsidii Le Loka”: Tribute to Miriam Makeba (South Africa), Broadmoor, July 29-30
“A Mountain Celebration”: AngloGold Ashanti Choir (South Africa), Woodland Park Tent, July 31
Individual tickets $40; packages available. Call 719-477-2100 or visit cfwt.org
