Pictures Images from the Illinois Shakespeare Festival 2005 season.____________
It's the time of year when grown men and women put on funny clothes and makeup, and go into the woods to sing, dance, laugh, cry and kick up their heels in a chorus line under the rising moon. And then there's summer stock theater. From Shakespeare to Steve Martin, the theatrical woods hold something for everyone this year, as they always do, at venues across the Midwest. The following all are within one day's drive. Gay-owned and GLBT-friendly bed-and-breakfast inns abound at, or near, most destinations although you might want to watch your back in Nauvoo ( see below under Illinois ) .
WISCONSIN
American Folklore Theatre ( AFT ) , Fish Creek—Last year, some 50,000 people saw AFT's original, family-friendly, 60-90 minute musicals. Celebrating its 15th year, AFT's June 14-August 27 season offers three past hits in repertory, the ghost stories of Bone Dance, the self-descriptive Lumberjacks in Love ( a butch gay man's dream? who knows? ) and Muskie Love, a North Woods version of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Performances are at Peninsula State Park, also offering campgrounds, hiking/biking trails, beaches and an 18-hole golf course. Tickets: $10 tops, are sold an hour before each show only. Info: www.folkloretheatre.com .
Door Shakespeare, Bailey's Harbor—On East Side of the Door Peninsula, this is the new kid on the Door County block, formed in 1999 and performing in the beautiful outdoor garden of 405-acre Bjorklunden, formerly a lakefront private estate. Door Shakespeare offers The Comedy of Errors and Goldsmith's romantic comedy She Stoops to Conquer, July 14-August 21. Bring your own pre-show picnic. Tickets: $18. Info available at: www.pclink.com/~gomis/doorshakespeare.
Peninsula Players, Fish Creek—This venerable venue ( 68 years old ) offers classic summer stock under an open-sided pavilion. This year, the company presents an abbreviated, four-show season in order to start construction of an all-new theater before winter. If the freeze comes late and the thaw comes early, Peninsula Players will have a larger stage and scene shop, new seats and better sightlines for 2006. The June 21-September 18 all-comedy season features a new sex farce by Ray Cooney, Tom, Dick and Harry. Chicago artists Tom Mula, Carmen Roman, James Leaming, Greg Vinkler and William J. Norris are among North Woods regulars, as popular in Fish Creek as they are here. As always, the sunsets over Green Bay are beautiful and picnics are encouraged in Peninsula Players' park-like setting. There's a bar, too, and always a bonfire after the show. Info available at: www.peninsulaplayers.com .
American Players Theatre ( APT ) , Spring Green—In its 26 years, APT has become one of America's outstanding classical summer theaters. The June 24-October 2 season features five plays in repertory including comedies by Shakespeare, Moliere, Shaw and Molnar ( his delightful The Play's the Thing ) plus Macbeth. Gourmet dinners are available for purchase or BYO. There's a barbeque area, too, with grills. The setting of prairie gardens and wooded hills is lovely, Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin is a near-by attraction and Spring Green—45 minutes west of Madison—still is unspoiled. There's some good antiquing to be done. Tickets: $29-$48 ( various specials are available ) . Info available at: www.americanplayers.org .
ILLINOS
Illinois Shakespeare Festival ( ISF ) , Bloomington/Normal—For its 27th season, ISF presents Twelfth Night, Macbeth and Henry VIII in rotating repertory, June 29-August 14. An extreme rarity, Henry VIII is only partly by Shakespeare but a whacking-good play nonetheless, with familiar Chicago faces Philip Earl Johnson and Roderick Peeples as Henry and Cardinal Wolsey. The comfortable, new ( 2003 ) outdoor theater is part of the beautifully landscaped Ewing Manor estate, boasting formal Elizabethan and Japanese gardens. Gourmet box dinners are available or BYO. Come early for the Greens Show. Bloomington/Normal is a-bloom with B&B's, antiques and country crafts, so spend a weekend. Tickets: $19-$39. Info: www.thefestival.org .
Little Theatre on the Square, Sullivan—Nearing its 50th year, this indoor ( air conditioned ) venue sits on a classic Midwestern court house square with a Civil War memorial. The June 8-August 14 season offers five musicals, among them 42nd Street, Swing and Beauty and the Beast. This is rich Illinois heartland and Mennonite territory that's close to Lake Shelby, the Lincoln shrines of Springfield and New Salem Historic Site ( see below ) , so enjoy. Stay at the Little House on the Prairie, a luxury B&B ( swimming pool ) run by theater founder Guy Little, Jr. and his partner. Tell 'em I sent you. Tickets: $22-$25 ( kids' shows, $7 ) . Info available at: www.thelittletheatre.org .
Theatre in the Park, New Salem Historic Site—Abe Lincoln was shot in a theater, and now there's a theater in the reconstructed frontier town where he once lived. Go figure. A semi-professional company presents four popular musicals June 10-August 21, among them Paint Your Wagon and Pippin. Shows are on weekends only, and alternate with country music-flavored concerts featuring name attractions. Tickets: $10 ( concerts more ) . Campground in the park, but Springfield is close. Info available at: www.theatreinthepark.net .
Nauvoo Restoration, Nauvoo—This Mississippi River town of 1,100—home of the early Mormon Church—is undergoing intense historic restoration. For 30 summers, an outdoor pageant celebrating Mormon history has been presented on a mammoth 300-foot wide stage with a cast of 150, many of whom come from Salt Lake City. This summer's new pageant celebrates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Mormon founder and prophet Joseph Smith ( who was murdered in Nauvoo ) . The FREE pageant is performed at sundown, Tue.-Sat., July 8-August 5. FYI, don't mistake Nauvoo for a casual stop: hundreds of thousands make it a destination each summer. Info: 800-453-0022, ext. 15
Timber Lake Playhouse, Mt. Carroll—In Illinois' scenic Northwest corner, near Galena, Timber Lake Playhouse has launched professional theater careers for 44 seasons, with Michael Gross, Jennifer Garner and Mary Beth Hurt among the famous alums. This year's young pros present six shows, June 1-August 20, among them the large-scale musicals Ragtime and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, plus Steve Martin's funny rewrite of a German comedy, The Underpants. For kids, there's the Magic Owl Theatre. A number of Chicago artists are Timber Lake regulars, among them Goodman Theatre director Chuck Smith. Tickets: $17. Info available at: www.timberlakeplayhouse.org .
MICHIGAN
Barn Theatre, Augusta—An old, red dairy barn ( air conditioned ) in the middle of nowhere with a resident troupe of veteran favorites and young comers in a May 31-August 21 season of six shows, among them Dial 'M' for Murder, Lil Abner and The Full Monty. Hey, Homer, did a pig get loose or did I see ya' bare-ass? Tom Wopat, Marin Mazzie, Bo Brinkman and Adrienne Barbeau are among the alums who sometimes return as stars. Summer stock just doesn't get more classic than this! There's a full bar, and a nightly post-show cabaret, too. No place to stay in Augusta except a state park camp ground, but it ain't far from Battle Creek and Kalamazoo. Tickets: $25-$27.50. Info: www.barntheatre.com .
Mason Street Warehouse, Saugatuck—Here's the gay find. For its third season, the indoor Mason Street Warehouse in downtown Saugatuck expands to a five show season through September 11. The ex-New Yorker partners who run MSW trust their growing audiences to enjoy the unfamiliar, among them two brand-new musicals, Honky-Tonk Highway and What a Glorius Feeling, a backstage look at the making of Singing in the Rain, plus the 2003 Tony Award winner, Urinetown. Hmmm. Why is it NOT a surprise that the Saugatuck-Douglas crowd would get into watersports. Tickets: $27.50-$30. Info: www.masonstreetwarehouse.org .
ODDS AND ENDS
Fans of outdoor spectacle and old-timey music ( and lots of it ) might seek out Stephen Foster—The Musical, the vast biographical pageant with 50 Foster songs, presented June 11-August 20 at My Old Kentucky Home State Park in Bardstown, KY ( info: www.stephenfoster.com ) . The irony is that Foster, who wrote My Old Kentucky Home, Old Black Joe, Camptown Races, etc. was a Yankee who never was south of the Mason-Dixon Line in his life.
Another outdoor pageant is Young Abe Lincoln, the tale in story and song of Lincoln's boyhood in Indiana ( before moving to New Salem ) , presented June 17-August 6 at Lincoln State Park in Lincoln City, IN. We think they need a snappier title, maybe Honest Abe: The Musical! or Rail-splitter! Info: www.usi.edu/lincoln.
Close-to-home treats include First Folio Shakespeare Festival, Oakbrook, offering The Taming of the Shrew in a Wild West setting June 21-August 7. Performances take place outdoors at the Peabody Estate, Mayslake Forest Preserve. Picnics are welcome. Info: www.firstfolio.org . Also, for its 30th season, the Festival Theatre, Oak Park, offers three shows in rotation, Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors ( with a Caribbean setting ) , Arthur Miller's early-career drama All My Sons, and Megan Wells' one-person show, The Myth of Love. Festival Theatre performances take place at the end of the Green Line in the Oak Park Historic District's Austin Gardens, where the fireflies love to twinkle in their fare-weather pursuit of sex. Tickets: $25. Info: www.oakparkfestival.com .
And take heed if you attend an outdoor venue: bring bug spray and a sweater or blanket 'gainst the chill night air, especially up in the North Woods. And watch out for all those folks frolicking in the forest.
