The Seattle Outdoor Theater Festival begins the weekend after the 4th of July, when summer traditionally arrives in Seattle. Theatre groups GreenStage, Theater Schmeater, Wooden O Productions, Open Circle Theater, Last Leaf Productions, Young Shakespeare Workshop, Balagan Theatre, and Wing-It Productions are all participating.
It’s not just Volunteer Park, of course. Play producers will be visiting parks all around Seattle: Lower Woodland, Seward, Judkins, Lincoln, Discovery, Magnuson, Camp Long, and beyond the city limits as well: Fall City, Burien’s Dottie Harper, Lynnwood’s Lynndale, and Redmond’s City Hall.
It’s something of a variety show atmosphere–you can see some of Seattle’s leading Shakespearean actors, you can see some “fun for the whole family” fare, and you can see whatever zaniness Wing-It has cooked up. For hardcore Shakespeare, you want SSC’s Wooden O and Greenstage; Last Leaf is more family-oriented. To laugh out loud, there’s Theater Schmeater and Wing-It.
Filed under “could be great”: King Arthur and the Knights of the Playground, written by Jaime Cruz, Maggie Lee, Juliet Waller Pruzan, Joanna Horowitz, Paul Mullin, and Matt Smith, and featuring the talents of Balagan’s remarkable troupe.
Regulars know the drill, but here are some tips for any n00bs out there: Three hours in the hot sun on a summer day will leave you dried out and crispy. Most people plan it like a picnic, with a blanket, food and water, sun hats, extra sunscreen, maybe some pillows to recline on. Generally, if you’re at all interested in the play, you want to sit as close as possible, because sound doesn’t travel well out of doors, and Volunteer is under a jet flight path, the frequency of which you never truly appreciate until you’re trying to decipher Shakespearean English.
And now, the opening weekend schedule:
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Noon
As You Like It: Last Leaf Productions
2 p.m.
Macbeth: Seattle Shakespeare Company’s Wooden O
In the Enchanted Forest: Open Circle Theater
4 p.m.
The Merchant of Venice: Last Leaf Productions
5 p.m.
Arrh! A Dinosaur Ate My Spaceship: Theater Schmeater
7 p.m.
The Tempest: GreenStage
The Lost Folio: Wing-It Productions
Sunday, July 10, 2011
11 a.m.
TBA: Young Shakespeare Workshop
2 p.m.
Antony and Cleopatra: GreenStage
In the Enchanted Forest: Open Circle Theater
4 p.m.
King Arthur and the Knights of the Playground: Balagan Theatre
5 p.m.
Arrh! A Dinosaur Ate My Spaceship: Theater Schmeater
7 p.m.
The Comedy of Errors: Seattle Shakespeare Company’s Wooden O
The Lost Folio: Wing-It Productions
