Continuing in the honored tradition of the Bacon’s Rebellion Clownie awards, I award the Falstaff award for buffoonery to Sen. Thomas Norment, R-Williamsburg, for sparking an entirely gratuitous controversy over creating an “official” state Shakespeare festival. The General Assembly passed legislation submitted by Norment that would have recognized his home-town favorite, the Virginia Shakespeare Festival at the College of William and Mary.

Backers of the designation argue that the credibility conferred by state recognition would help boost tourism.

But Capital News Service reports that Richmonders hold a Richmond Shakespeare Festival each summer, Virginia Beach has held a Hampton Roads Shakespeare Festival in the past, and the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton plays Shakespeare year round. Apparently, a number of Richmonders have objected to their festival being demoted to second fiddle — or would that be second lute?

I have nothing against the Williamsburg festival. Good for the William and Mary troupe. Go get ’em guys. But as a Richmonder, I would suggest that the Richmond event is equally if not more deserving of the state honorific. After all, the event is held at Agecroft Hall, an Elizabethan-era estate home that was shipped to Richmond in the 1920s and reassembled here. How’s that for credentials?

But my sentimental favorite is the American Shakespeare Center in Staunton, which plays in a faithful replica of Shakespeare’s Blackfriars theater and performs in the style of Elizabethan theater troupes — no “reinterpreting” Shakespeare there! I took my wife there to see a performance of “Julius Caesar” for her birthday last month. Talk about tourism — with no state recognition or support, Blackfriars has become a significant tourist draw for the city of Staunton.

My personal sentiments aside, the state should not play favorites. Let the Shakespearean theatrical troupes engage in free and open competition for the recognition of the public — just as they did in the bard’s day — and may the best one win. Then we be able to say, “All’s well that end’s well.”

— JAB