‘Wind in the Willows’ is Final Curtain for Blondell
Westmont’s famed theater arts professor John Blondell, who will retire after 37 years at the college, directs “The Wind in the Willows” Friday, Feb. 21, at 8:30 p.m.; Feb. 22, 28 and March 1 at 7 p.m.; and March 1-2 at 2 p.m.; all in Porter Theatre. Purchase tickets, which cost $20 for general admission and $12 for students and seniors, at westmont.edu/box-office.
Blondell says he chose Kenneth Grahame’s celebration of nature, friendship and loyalty as his final Westmont production because it broaches profound contemporary issues.
“In a day and age when the clamor of life gets all too loud, the character’s tender meditation on friendship and home arrives as balm for the soul,” he says. “On the surface, it’s a simple story about the fascinations of several animal friends as they propel themselves into the world. On a deeper level, however, the play engages many compelling questions: What is home? What does it provide us? Why do we leave it? What happens to us when we leave it? How do we change when we leave it? What happens when we neglect or are careless with it? Would we fight for it? Yes, it’s deep and compelling.”
“Wind in the Willows” uses a variety of stage techniques to enact the 1908 children’s story. “The production features toys, puppets and object-based methods that fuse with conventional acting and storytelling to create a hybrid form that should delight, surprise and humor audiences,” he says.
He says the actors are essentially storytellers, which is the principal mode of the play.
“The actors charm spectators into a web of imagination, invention and wonder. I hope the production captures the whimsical delight of the material while it plumbs the depths of deeper philosophical, emotional and metaphysical dimensions of our lives.”
Blondell, who became Westmont’s Global Ambassador for the Performing Arts in 2021, presented his Bitola National Theatre production of “Henry VI, Part 3” at the 2012 Globe to Globe Festival sponsored by Shakespeare’s Globe London. His Westmont production of “The Pirates of Penzance” received three national awards, including Distinguished Production of a Musical and Distinguished Director of a Musical, from the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. He has won 13 Independent Theatre Awards for Excellence in Directing, the 2003 Faculty Research Award from Westmont and the 2013 Teacher of the Year in the Humanities.