31st Annual Steinbeck Festival

When: Thursday, August 4, 2011, 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Where: Monterey County,
Cost: Free - $135
Age limit: Not available
Categories: Film, Literary, Art (opening), Community, Classical

It begins with a bevy of tours—a bus tour to three settings of Steinbeck's books and another to 70-plus movie local movie sites, and a walking tour of the First Mayor's House and Ed Ricketts' Lab, though those end with a pub crawl in Cannery Row. That's on Thursday. Then, like a geyser, it gushes all over the county with events over the next three days (free on Sunday for locals with ID). Friday holds forth speakers like Steinbeck Center Executive Director Colleen Bailey, Steinbeck's son, author Thomas Steinbeck, SF Cartoon Museum's Andrew Farago, and the opening of Pierre-Alain Bertola's art exhibit of his graphic novel treatment for Of Mice and Men. Saturday procures for you a panel of actor David Conrad, poet Tim Hernandez and scholar Katharine Rodger, and other speakers who explore pairings of Steinbeck's books with those of others—Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude and East of Eden, for one. Sunday is even more inclusive as a community free day (with a bilingual component) stocked with poet George Wallace's tribute to Steinbeck, Whitman and Toni Morrison, Pulitzer-prize winner Jane Smiley's sneak peek at her "middle-grade" novel True Blue, a concert of local composers (3pm Sun) and a theatrical adaptation of Of Mice and Men. Live simulcast videos will conncet all this activity to concurrent events, under the aegis of a Fringe Fest, in Columbia, Egypt, France, Kenya and elsewhere. And scattered throughout, archive tours of Steinbeck memorabilia and historical remnants of the man's life, meals with key participants, more tours, films and workshops for graphic novel making, teens and teachers. (See Lit story.) [WR]
10am-9:30pm Thu; 8:30am-8pm Fri; 8:30am-9:30pm Sat; 9am-6pm Sun. Various locations throughout Monterey County (most events occur at National Steinbeck Center, One Main Street, Salinas). See website for times and prices. 775-4721, www.steinbeck.org.

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