Arts & Events

Robert Estes, born in Oakland, was for years someone you'd meet at theater productions and events all around the Bay, as a spectator or helping out behind the scenes. I first ran into him at Novato Theatre Company over a decade ago, when he offered me a ride back to Berkeley, saving me an early exit before curtain to catch the last bus to the cross-Bay transfer.

But it wasn't till the approach of his sixth decade, in 2010, that Estes directed his first full-length play, after years of assisting for a wide range of productions & directing staged readings, with 'The Curse of the Starving Class' for Actors Ensemble of Berkeley at Live Oak Theater. (Robert reminded me that I wrote about that show for the Planet; I remember Holly Bradford's impressive performance well ... ) A few years and about a half dozen plays as director later, Estes founded Anton's Well Theater Company, named after one of the great Chekhov's many social projects, water wells and libraries among them.

"Chekhov believed every person should leave something behind. Younger people, with their own concerns and sense of time, usually are the ones to set up new theater companies. I'm 57 years old. I want to bring some fresh water to theater. Like in baseball, which goes from the rookie leagues up to the majors, there's a lot of room between, say, in the East Bay, community theater and Berkeley Rep. By starting a company that's in between layers, I can develop as a director, help others develop, keep people from having to go somewhere else to make theater, help fill the gap. we've premiered several plays new to the Bay Area. [including Sam Shepard's two-hander, 'Ages of the Moon'--it was a Sam Shepard play that was the first professional stage production Estes ever saw, which his father took him to.] And a small company can sometimes put on a better show than the major companies do."

Right now, Estes has a show running through August 6 at the Temescal Arts Center, the Bay Area premiere of another two-hander--though one with a difference--Philip Ridley's 'Tender Napalm.' And by year's end, with another show, title to be announced, at the Berkeley City Club, Anton's Well will celebrate its third anniversary with its seventh production.  

Of 'Tender Napalm,' Estes said "I love plays involved in language, that finds a way to talk about love, falling in and out of love, about children, the passage of time--elliptical, immediate, yet very precise, which could also be said of another Bay Area premiere of ours at the City Club, 'what Rhymes With America.' " 

Estes hopes to expand Anton's Well's seasons to three plays a year, bring in other directors--and keep introducing new plays to the Bay Area, helping audiences and theater people, including himself, to go forward, their eyes on the future. 

Anton's Well's production of ''tender Napalm,' Fridays & saturdays at 8 through August 5 at Temescal Arts Center, 511-48th Street (just off Telegraph), Oakland. $17-$20. antonswell.org