She takes this world’s stage seriously

“All the world’s a stage.
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His act being seven ages.”
—As You Like It. Act ii, sc. 7.
Access to Art is inviting area residents and visitors to enjoy William Shakespeare’s classic comedy As You Like It, performed by the Aquila Theatre Company at the Lower Cape May Regional High School’s Paul W. Schmidtchen Theatre, on Rte. 9 in Erma, Nov. l4 at 7:30 p.m.
Hopefully, when Jaques recites those above lines on the seven stages of life, those in the audience, especially younger spectators, will pay rapt attention—not simply because Shakespeare has something worthwhile to impart, but because we here in Cape May County, need to expose our youth to more culture.
At least that’s what Barbara Beitel, founder and executive director of Access to Art accepts as an unassailable truth.
“When I first substitute taught at Middle Township High, I realized there was a dearth of serious cultural events here,” she said. “The kids here did not have a lot to choose from. They were not seeing the world as something larger than what they grew up with.”
Beitel, a north Jersey native who studied the humanities and majored in English in college, worked at the Trentonian and covered the arts in venues like Philadelphia and Princeton.
“We’re dumbing down our children,” she declared. “Today’s youth sate themselves at the feast of mediocrity, and when they’re done eating, they’re still hungry.”
Citing contemporary entertainment media, Beitel called it ‘junk food for the brain.’
“Poison in; poison out,” she said.
“Back in the 1960s, this country was number one in education,” she continued. “Today, we’re number 38, and that bothers me. We’ve bought in to the ‘American Idol’ mentality.
“I’m not a snob,” she cautioned. “I sorrow for our country. Nothing good comes from mass stupidity.”
If culture—serious culture—was to grow at the Jersey cape, Beitel thought something must be done. She teamed with Sam Maitin, a Philadelphia abstract artist in 1987.
“We came up with the idea (Access to Art) simultaneously,” she noted. “Sam wanted me to do an ‘Aspen of the East,’ and not be all flash and dance like Atlantic City, but bring really fine artists, musicians, writers, dancers, photographers, actors, etc. to the area to share what they were doing with each other and with an audience.
“At the time, I was told there was no market for quality programming here,” she said. “But excellence is better than mediocrity, and we wanted to counter the prevailing culture.”
Although she carries the title of Executive Director, Beitel can usually be found selling tickets at the door, writing grants, and doing whatever is necessary to bring things like Shakespeare to Cape May County. Fundraising is an ongoing task, but she won’t give in to cultural trends she sees as debilitating and relentless.
“We have to get our minds out of the gutter,” she said. “We need to go after ‘good, better, best,’ and stop perusing ‘mediocre, dumb, inane.’
“Why are we dumbing down our culture?” she asked. “Who is behind this? What do they want?”
Bringing Shakespeare to the area is merely one salvo in her continuing assault on what she labeled as ‘perverse’ in contemporary American culture. She is also seeking to put together a Renaissance Festival and engaging area youth to play some of the roles.
“We have to take a look at ourselves,” she said. “There are some fabulous characters in Shakespeare, enabling us to use more creative imagination and keep our language skills up. Shakespeare…and even the Greek dramatists display a ‘commonality of community.’ They teach what can happen when you violate mores.”
Anyone interested in getting involved in Access to Art, or participating in the Renaissance Festival committee, or making reservations for “As You Like It,” can call 609-465-3963.
Then maybe we can at least begin to teach our impressionable youth to take that look at themselves and stop pinning their hopes on the shallow promises of a continually emerging shallow culture, before they reach that seventh age Jaques ominously foretells, wherein they return to:
“…childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.”
—As You Like It. Act ii, sc. 7.