Everyone's on strike! Go see some Shakespeare.

It's summertime so it's time to go out and see some outdoor Shakespeare (and one indoor one too).

Let's start with outdoor and free.

The Independent Shakespeare Company that performs outdoors at the old Griffith Park Zoo is celebrating twenty years of outdoor productions with Julius Caesar (now through July 30th) and A Midsummer's Night Dream (August 9th - September 3rd).  All shows run Wednesday through Sunday at 7 PM and are free. For a donation of $60 you can get a lawn chair otherwise it's casual and blankets on the grass.

Across town in Topanga, Will Geer's Theatricum Botanicum is celebrating 50 years of outdoor Shakespeare with a production of MacBeth and, also, A Midsummer's Night Dream. Both play in rep between now and September 23rd. The seats in their outdoor amphitheater run from $20 to $60 (they also do a 'pay what you will' performance).

Back across the city in Glendale, Antaeus Theatre Company is doing a production of The Tempest through July 30th. This one's not outdoors, it's a mixture of a radio play backed up by a three-piece combo. Tickets range from $20-$40.

CTG lets the Taper go dark for 23/24

Center Theatre Group announced that they are cancelling the rest of their Mark Taper Forum season and going dark for the 23/24 Season.

While not surprising, given Center Theatre Group's financial condition, it is shocking.

Of course this announcement comes with staff layoffs and a loss of diversity on stage (the cancelling of Lauren Yee's Cambodian Rock Band and stated postponement of Larissa Fasthorse's Fake It Until You Make It) but it also comes with a hit to Center Theatre Group's local and national reputation and an inauspicious start for incoming Artistic Director Snehal Desai.

What was once a leader in the LORT theatre world becomes, at least for a year, mostly a road house for Broadway. The pandemic taught us how difficult it is to get an audience back to the theater and how quickly they'll find other options. Here's hoping that a one year pause in programming helps Center Theater Group rediscover its mission and rejuvenate not just its coffers but its vitality and viability.