r e t a e h T iller By Jo M
AL FRESCO THEATER
From Pirates of Penzance to the Mud Show.
52 SUMMER GUIDE JUNE 12, 2014
It’s in Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy As You Like It that the gloomy Jaques utters the famed phrase “All the world’s a stage.” However deep its commentary on the human condition, that statement quite literally gives theater the freedom to leave its brick-and-mortar indoors setting and venture anywhere. Why not see performances in a park, on a patio or aboard a cruise boat, especially now that the weather has warmed? Montana Shakespeare in the Parks will bring their touring performance of As You Like It to Liberty Lake’s Pavillion Park on AUG. 23. In their version, the setting is Butte, Montana, in 1917, and the main characters find themselves exiled to logging towns. Performing outdoors in natural light gives the actors an opportunity to use the surroundings — whether it’s a tree or nearby swing set — and connect with the audience, says Susan Dickerson, the organization’s managing director. It also makes the experience more casual. “People will be wandering by, just playing Frisbee, and they stop and watch,” Dickerson says. “We’ve had everything happen from ducks wandering on stage [to] kids really jumping into the action.” As another outdoor perk, spread out a blanket on the lawn and nosh on picnic-basket food all evening, something you would never get away with in an indoor theater. Perhaps you want food and wine served to you during a performance? Coeur d’Alene Cellars is hosting a murder mystery theater dinner party on their patio (JUNE 27, JULY 11, AUG. 15 and 22). Or snack on hors d’oeuvres aboard a two-hour cruise of Lake Coeur d’Alene and watch the comic opera Pirates of Penzance, put on by Opera Coeur d’Alene (JULY 13). For an all-day outdoor theater experience, consider the Northwest Renaissance Festival in Nine Mile Falls for all four weekends in JULY. And catch the Mud Show, in which mud beggars get into an actual mud pit, slosh around and tell fairy tales and classic stories like Beowulf and Hamlet, says festival director Tienne Rogers. “If you’re really lucky, you’ll get there on a day where they’re synchronized swimming,” she says.