1. --> April 24, 1990, Washington Times, Shakespeare gets a supporting cast
2. --> March 16, 1990, Washington Times, Christopher Plummer gets Folger award
3. --> April 23, 1991, Washington Times, Folger crowns Branagh for kingly 'Henry V'
4. --> April 22, 1991, Chicago Tribune, Shakespeare survives a night of glitz in Washington
5. --> April 23, 1992, Washington Times, Out, Out, Candles
6. --> April 28, 1992, Washington Times, Folger benefit creates a pageant of people

April 24, 1990

''Please, please work hard for this precious little theater and our wonderful Bill Shakespeare," said Lady Marjory Wright, recipient of the Distinguished Service Award at the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger's Will Award ceremony Saturday night.

For Lady Marjory and her husband, Lord Oliver Wright, the evening was a homecoming of sorts. When he served as Britain's ambassador here, they had been extremely popular on the social circuit and supportive of local theater. And, apparently, they haven't lost their touch; 440 guests at the National Building Museum paid $500 per ticket to attend the dinner.

"Actually your dinner is free. It's this dress that cost $500," said actress Pat Carroll. Her "dress" was really a colossal octopus costume, donned for performing a selection from "The Little Mermaid" while Shakespeare company members Richard Gero and Floyd King danced in lobster and crab suits.

But Robert Linowes, president of the theater's board of directors, revealed where the money really went. "This is the second year in a row that the theater expects to close in the black. We would really like to thank everyone here."

And thank them they did with an evening of - theater. Actors Stacy Keach and Rosemary Harris were masters of ceremonies, Obie Award-winner Carole Shelley doffed her shoes to portray Rosalind from "As You Like It," New York actress Debbie Shapiro played the torch singer with selections from Jerome Robbins' "Broadway."

Christopher Plummer, who was honored with the Will Award for his "major contribution to classical theater in America," opted for improvisation in true Bard style.

"Oh, Will Shakespeare, how often have we desecrated you, botched you. And how often have you taken us away on your wings of genius and made us look so damn good."

Many of the actors whom Shakespeare has made look good were present for the evening, including Franchelle Stewart Dorn, who took over the after-dinner dancing, and Sabrina Le Beauf, who preferred to remain very close to her new husband, Michael Reynolds. The two met last year when he interviewed her for WOL radio while she was working in the theater's production of "As You Like It."

"It was instant love," she said. "We were married six weeks after we met."

Though many envious glances were cast toward the thespians, one guest said he had forsaken the limelight forever.

"One critic said I was the worst Macbeth that had ever been seen on a Berlin stage," said Lord Oliver, but he took the review as helpful criticism. "It's rather like golf. If you're no good at it, you shouldn't play."

GRAPHIC: Photos, A) Robert Linowes, left, presents the Will Award to Christopher Plummer.; B) Lady Marjory Wright receives her award from Robert Linowes.; C) From left, Stacy Keach, Pat Carroll sans the $500 octopus costume, and Shakespeare Theatre director Michael Kahn; D) Christopher Plummer and Rosemary Harris; E) Newlyweds Sabrina Le Beauf and Michael Reynolds, All By Manny Rocca/The Washington Times

What does Christopher Plummer have in common with Kevin Kline and Joseph Papp? As of April 21, all three will have received The Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger's Will Award. The award, given annually to an actor, producer, director or designer who has made a major contribution to classical theater in America, will be presented to Mr. Plummer at the National Building Museum next month.

The Canadian-born Mr. Plummer has played leading roles from the classical repertory with Great Britain's National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Canada's Stratford Festival Company and on Broadway. He was acclaimed as Iago in "Othello" opposite James Earl Jones in 1982 and more recently ran into the Scottish jinx playing "Macbeth" with Glenda Jackson. Mr. Plummer currently can be seen in the John Boorman film "Where the Heart Is," as a decidedly unclassical homeless person.

The Will Award gala includes a dinner dance and features appearances by celebrity guests and entertainers paying tribute to Mr. Plummer. In addition, Lady Marjory Wright, founding trustee of The Shakespeare Theatre, will receive a distinguished service award for her work with the Capitol Hill theater.

For information about attending the event, contact the Folger development department at 547 -3230.

Was it Superman Christopher Reeve? Superbeauty Kelly McGillis?

No. Miss Wood, 25, of Alexandria, reveres the most unlikely of matinee idols: a slight, ordinary-looking Belfast-born actor/director/screenwriter, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London.

She laughingly displayed the poster of the 1989 film "Henry V" and the autobiographical "Beginnings" that she hoped to have Kenneth Branagh sign on the way into the National Building Museum Saturday, where he was to receive the fourth annual Will Award from the Shakespeare Theatre at the Folger.

"He's a brilliant actor. A really important actor for our time," said her shivering friend, Lisa Perdue, 31, of Springfield.

Shakespeare Theatre director Michael Kahn agrees. Mr. Kahn said there was really no question of whom to honor this year. "Clearly it was the major contribution of the year," he said of the sumptuous "Henry V," which Mr. Branagh adapted, directed and starred in.

At the reception Mr. Branagh had plenty of time for the gaggle of reporters. He discussed a variety of surprisingly tough subjects, ranging from his opinions on funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (he's for it) to a recent Forbes magazine article that compared his Henry to President Bush in the Persian Gulf war (pretty silly, but if you want to discuss it, fine).

He even got into a lively debate with two aggressive writers for something called the Executive Intelligence Review over whether "Henry V" the movie was true to "Henry V" the play.

Mr. Branagh patiently pointed out that Shakespeare's work is universal in scope, above politics. In "Romeo and Juliet" or "Macbeth," he said, "these are issues that we are experiencing today, here and in non-English-speaking countries."

About 500 crowded into the National Building Museum for the event, which organizers hope will raise $250,000 for the theater and its educational programs. Although the hall was decorated in a garden motif, complete with real grass, it was chilly. ("Cosby Show" star Sabrina Le Beauf, appearing in the Folger's current production of "King Lear," ended up with the jacket of her husband, Michael Reynolds, over her strapless white dress.)

On hand to congratulate Mr. Branagh were Britain's Ambassador Antony Acland with wife Jennifer, Canada's Ambassador Derek Burney and wife Joan, Denmark's Ambassador Peter Dyvig and wife Karen, Norway's Ambassdor Kjeld Vibe and wife Beate, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy with wife Mary, FBI Director William Sessions with wife Alice, and Jody Powell, former Carter press secretary.

Last year's Will Award winner, Christopher Plummer - "sporting his spring tan," one observer commented - paid tribute to his fellow actor. Referring to his own experience playing Henry, he said Mr. Branagh had also been "lucky enough to sink [his] teeth into [the part of] Hank."

In his acceptance speech Mr. Branagh, 30, displayed a casual familiarity with the Bard as if he were a friendly older uncle.

"He's provided me with constant employment over the years . . . and the screenplay for the film. And he still doesn't get a percentage," he quipped. Later he described his commitment to the works of Shakespeare as "popularizing him without patronizing him."

Luring Mr. Branagh to this little theater across the sea caps a heady year for the Folger. The current production of "King Lear" is almost sold out and has just been extended. The theater will sponsor a two-week run of "The Merry Wives of Windsor" in June at the Carter Barron Amphitheatre. And best of all, for the third year running, it's in the black.

Aside from the excitement the Hollywood glitterati generated, many guests were most interested in the theater's lineup for next year. Already scheduled are "Measure for Measure," "Much Ado About Nothing" and the first-ever Washington production of "Coriolanus."

As for the fourth play, Mr. Kahn said, "I don't really know yet. I'm fiddling around with people, schedules and other directors. I won't know for about three more weeks."

Dinner guests were privileged to a special announcement: Miss McGillis, who won a Helen Hayes Award last year for her performance in "Twelfth Night," will return this season to star as Isabella in "Measure" and Beatrice in "Ado."

"I respect Michael a great deal. We have a good working relationship," Miss McGillis said after the awards presentation, for which she was co-host with Mr. Reeve. "I know people here will tell me if I'm bad and not let me get away with it. They'll say, 'Kelly, that's really bad acting,' and I'll say, 'You're right.' I feel safe and well taken care of here."

GRAPHIC: Photo, Robert Linowes, president of the theater's board (right), with awardee Kenneth Branagh, By Manny Rocca/The Washington Times ; Photo, Michael Kahn watches as Kelly McGillis congratulates Kenneth Branagh with a kiss., By Manny Rocca/The Washington Times ; Photo, Chris to Chris: Christopher Plummer (left) and Christopher Reeve, By Manny Rocca/The Washington Times

As Shakespeare wrote in Act I of "Macbeth": "How tender 'tis to love the babe."

On Saturday night, Washington's Shakespeare Theater at the Folger bestowed its prestigious Will (short for William Shakespeare) Award for Classical Theater on Britain's young Kenneth Branagh, star of last year's immensely popular instant film classic "Henry V."

Immortal Shakespearean lines were bouncing off the classic columns and Italianate pillars of Washington's National Building Museum all night long, but if the elegant, candle-lit black-tie gala had a specific theme, it was babes.

The Belfast-born Branagh, husband of "Henry V" co-star Emma Thompson, is known for his baby face and has achieved stature as a Shakespearean titan. At the tender age of 30, he is oft compared to the late, great Laurence Olivier.

One of Hollywood's brightest babes, Juilliard-educated Kelly McGillis, was co-host of the evening. The statuesque star appeared on stage after just having put her 1-year-old daughter, Kelsey, to bed.

McGillis, who studied under Folger artistic director Michael Kahn, has starred between flicks in two Folger Shakespearean productions, and announced Saturday night that she'll be back in two more next season: "Measure for Measure" and "Twelfth Night." But her next movie is the forthcoming, Chicago-filmed life story of George Herman "Babe" Ruth - in which McGillis plays Mrs. Babe.

Also taking a bow during the evening was Shakespeare Theater resident leading lady Franchelle Stewart Dorn, who, as she made evident in rising to accept the applause of the guests, is absent from the boards this spring only because she has just embarked on maternity leave.

Cabaret star Mary Cleere Haran, who provided the musical entertainment for the gala, apologized for seeming discomfited, noting that she'd been nursing a newborn "for the last two months - right up until five minutes ago."

Branagh, who has already written his autobiography, aptly entitled "Beginnings," accepted his award with great humility. He stressed the need to keep Shakespeare popular and a treasure to be shared by the public - whether through mud and blood-soaked realistic film treatments like his "Henry" or the invariably sold-out Folger productions, which have featured film stars like Stacey Keach as Richard III and Avery Brooks as Othello in critically acclaimed, blood-spurting rousers.

Branagh expressed his gratitude with a simple Shakespearean, "Thanks, thanks, ever thanks," an example a lot of Oscar winners would do well to follow. As he already has been nominated for two Academy Awards, he may yet get to use the line on Oscar night for real.

Joining such dignitaries as Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy and FBI director William Sessions were classical theater veterans Christopher "Superman" Reeve, Sabrina "Cosby Show" LeBeauf, Karen "Grand Hotel" Akers and Ed "Eleanor and Franklin" Herrmann.

Christopher Plummer, last year's Will Award winner and a man noted for an appreciative eye for babes, brought the audience to its feet with some remarks of homage to Branagh that turned into a breathtaking, tour de force recital from memory of the opening passages of "Henry V": "O for a muse of fire. . . . "

But, as Shakespeare could attest, scene stealing is nothing new.

Hearthrob Mel Gibson, who last year starred in a Hollywood version of "Hamlet," did not attend, which is just as well. He probably would have arrived swinging in on a rope.

This is one of the biggest nights on the Washington social circuit: Princess Alexandra (said to be the favorite cousin of Queen Elizabeth II) and her husband, Angus Ogilvy (he didn't want to be bothered with a title), will be at the Folger Shakespeare Library to celebrate its 60th birthday. It's also the Bard's birthday celebration.

And quite a party he'll miss. Party chairman Lucky Roosevelt has pulled together Christopher Plummer and Zoe Caldwell, Leontyne Price and New York City Ballet principal dancers Judith Fugate and Peter Boal to pay tribute to the birthday boy. Swell names from around the country are coming in for the party: Gordon and Ann Getty, Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington and Christopher Forbes.

Such a guest list reads more like a party in New York than here.

The decorations will smell sweet, indeed, with thousands of roses from Italy, Morocco and Colombia. The only English rose will be the princess herself.

But an unassuming, rather matronly looking woman by the name of Margot may well steal the show. she's better known as Mrs. H. Ross Perot.

ROCKING RIGHT ALONG

We're so happy that any hard feelings Irish rock group U2 may have had against the Capital Centre isn't keeping them away from Washington altogether. They've found room in their summer tour for a stop at RFK Stadium on Aug. 15.

Hard feelings of an entirely different sort didn't keep an Australian man from seeing a Bob Dylan concert.

Richard Dickinson, 25, who trampled his mother to death to the accompaniment of Dylan's "One More Cup of Coffee for the Road," was let out of prison for one night to see his idol in Hobart, Tasmania.

According to the Associated Press, Dickinson's medical team had discussed the possibility that Dylan might sing the inflammatory song in the concert. But it was decided there was little risk if he did. Prison will do that to you.

Got a hot scoop? Call Merrie at 202/636-3228.

For those standing in the windows of town houses across the street from the Folger Shakespeare Library, the spectacle Thursday night seemed more characteristic of an episode from "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" than any pageant produced by the Bard.

Even the amazed teen-agers Rollerblading by - probably more familiar with Robin Leach than Laertes - stopped to stare as an "awesome" logjam of limousines disgorged the glitzy crowd arriving for the venerable institution's Diamond Jubilee Gala.

As the parade of patrons proceeded up the red-carpeted walkway under a white marquee, it soon became clear that this was no humdrum affair of PACs-and-lobbies fat cats or tacky Tinseltown types.

It was something radically different, a high-society soiree, or at least what passes for one these days. It was not only expensive (at $1,000 a pop) but featured: royalty (with special guest Princess Alexandra of Kent, cousin of Queen Elizabeth II); white-tie dress (with de rigueur diplomatic decorations); and major dresses and jewelry (the kind costing more than the median annual income of most American families).

"As good luck would have it" (to quote Act III of "The Merry Wives of Windsor"), it was all the work of former U.S. Chief of Protocol and benefit chairman Selwa W. "Lucky" Roosevelt - the only one who could have pulled it off, according to many of those attending.

"Lucky asked and we can never say 'no' to Lucky," said patron Timothy Forbes, of the Forbes publishing empire. "If you know her, you'll know why."

"It's the only way to raise this kind of money," observed Mrs. Roosevelt, when told that the Folger's estimate on the evening's take was in the $300,000 range. "Since most everything was donated, the full amount of the contribution is given to the library."

The underwriting was impressive: food and engraving costs from Tiffany & Co.; wines from Moet- Hennessy via "the good offices of [former Ambassador to France] Evan Galbraith; and the king of Morocco's breathtaking present of 650 dozen white roses flown in from Marrakesh the previous day by Ambassador Mohamed Belkhayat.

Before a sumptuous dinner in the Great Hall, guests were treated to a pas de deux from "Romeo and Juliet" performed by Judith Fugate and Peter Boal of the New York City Ballet, selections from "Tosca" and "Porgy and Bess" sung by renowned diva Leontyne Price and a somewhat madcap selection from Shakespeare called "Lovers and Madmen," hammed up by Zoe Caldwell and Christopher Plummer. (Later, they both seemed quite pleased with having "played around a little" with some of the English language's most timeless verse.)

Attracting even more attention from photographers than did stars of stage, screen and Old Money watering holes was Margot Perot, wife of Texas billionaire Ross Perot, who was asked to join the benefit committee long before anyone ever dreamed her husband might run for president.

"I'm expecting a big change in my life, but it hasn't happened quite yet. I don't even know what the rigors of a campaign would be like," said Mrs. Perot, who blended into the crowd so effectively that most fellow guests never figured out who she was.

"She's a lady, and she showed real manners and judgment," explained Mrs. Roosevelt later, when asked why her friend didn't show up at a pre-gala White House reception hosted by President and Mrs. Bush.

Not so retiring was writer-socialite Ariana Stassinopoulos Huffington , whose husband, Michael, is, like the Perots, a family friend of the Bushes' from Texas. Mr. Huffington is a pro-choice Republican candidate challenging pro-life Rep. Robert Lagomarsino in California's Republican primary in June.

"The president volunteered that he was 'sorry,' but he has to support the [nine-term] incumbent," said Mrs. Huffington, who also may have given Mr. Bush some advice culled from the research she's been doing on her next book, "The Fourth Instinct," all about how people try to find the meaning of life.

Others sighted in the crowd of about 275: Folger Director Werner Gundersheimer; Sen. Alan Simpson, Wyoming Republican; bejeweled hostesses Evangeline Bruce and Buffy Cafritz; Oatsie Charles; Mario and Maureen Boiardi (of the Chef Boy-ar-dee family); du Pont heirs Louisa Duemling, Betty May and David Greenewalt; and presidential counsel C. Boyden Gray.

Also: Kathleen Hearst; Nashville and Palm Beach hostess Alyne Massey with Houston oilman Edwin Cox; former CIA Director Richard Helms; statesman Paul Nitze with Leezee Porter; jet-setters Alecco Papamarkou and Sandra di Portanova; Engelhardt heiress Sally Pingree; Elliott Roosevelt; former New York Timesman Abe Rosenthal; and publisher Mortimer Zuckerman.

Not to mention a bevy of wealthy widows with their walkers - and the Walker of Walkers, "Social Moth" Jerome Zipkin, with his walker.

GRAPHIC: Photos, A) Karen and Werner Gundersheimer, Sir Angus Ogilvy and Princess Alexandra of Kent wearing the Grand Cross, Royal Victorian Order; B) Maureen and Mario Boiardi make their entrance at the gala.; C) Ariana S. Huffington; D) Benefit chairman Lucky Roosevelt with Margot Perot; E) Leontyne Price, All By Manny Rocca/The Washington Times