It may not have quite the standing of Stratford-upon-Avon, but Jupiter’s Shakespeare by the Sea is historical by Florida standards: 25 years of free summer Shakespeare in an oceanfront setting.
This weekend and next, the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival presents “Hamlet” as its summer offering in Carlin Park on A1A, a little south of the Jupiter Lighthouse. Thousands are expected bearing lawn chairs and picnic baskets, settling in after the sun sets for an evening of outdoor theater.
At a little over an hour’s drive, it’s by far the closest bard-in-a-park by car.
When the Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival premiered in the spring of 1990, Burt Reynolds was its honorary chairman. The production was “Macbeth” and it was staged at Palm Beach Community College.
Six months later, the company moved to a beachfront park a few minutes south of the Jupiter Lighthouse to stage the comedy “Twelfth Night.” In a single weekend, 10,000 people came to see what would become the annual tradition of Shakespeare by the Sea.
That terrific response prompted county officials to declare Carlin Park as the North County Cultural Site; and build a 3,000-seat amphitheater that opened in 1996. Meanwhile, the company found an indoor home in 2003, the then-brand new 700-seat Eissey Theatre at the college’s Palm Beach Gardens campus – the same theater that last year became the regular venue for Vero’s Atlantic Classical Orchestra. The Palm Beach Shakespeare Festival is now the resident professional theater company at Eissey.
It’s worth noting that the Orlando Shakespeare Theater performs in its own beautiful Shakespeare Center during the winter season; the center is within the museum-rich Loch Haven Cultural Park just north of downtown.
From Shakespeare to show tunes: The Vero Beach Theatre Guild is holding another of its popular Broadway revues next weekend as a summer fundraiser for a much-needed expansion project. Show tunes are a switch from the last two summers, when the Guild staged Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. “‘Pirates of Penzance’ and ‘The Mikado’ are the two best Gilbert and Sullivan shows, so we felt we would take a break and try something different,” says Mark Wygonik, who last week ended his rotation on the board of directors, where he served as president all three years. Jim Daly has taken over Guild guidance, though Wygonik will continue his very active support.
Wygonik’s term included the groundbreaking on a three-story, 5,000-square-foot building that is the first major expansion of the Guild’s Atlantic Avenue venue since it was turned from a church into a proper theater in 1992.
The “Broadway to Hollywood to Broadway” revue, which opens Thursday, July 16, runs through July 19. Tickets, at $25, are expected to chip away at the rest of the $1 million needed to finish the building – so far, Wygonik says, they’ve raised a figure around the halfway mark, including the past two summers’ operettas, which each raised $15,000.
The summer’s revue features songs that have gone from film to stage and vice versa.
The cast of 17, directed by Wygonik with music direction by Greg Harris, includes a number of college kids home for summer vacation, and a generally younger cast. Jacob Craig, music director at First Presbyterian Church, will accompany the hit songs on piano, including a few numbers from edgier shows like Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein” and Monty Python’s “Spamalot.”
Jacob Craig has been a busy man this month. If you missed the free faculty concert of the Mike Block String Camp last week, you’ve got one last shot tonight when the world-class musicians in town to teach the annual camp lead a number of bands made up of the most advanced students who wrap up their week-long extension Friday. The final concert starts at 7:30 p.m. at First Presbyterian’s new education wing.
Space Coast Orchestra offers yet another America-themed summer concert Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Vero Beach High School Performing Arts Center. This concert is considered the first of the Broward-based orchestra’s Masterworks series for 2015-2016.
The program highlights Bernstein’s “West Side Story” and includes two equally powerful works that will precede Bernstein. The concert opens with Grammy-winning composer Michael Daugherty’s “Letters from Lincoln” featuring Titusville-based baritone Michael John Foster singing a text made up of Lincoln’s writings and letters.
The concert also includes the work “An American Place” by one of conductor Aaron Collins’ favorite composers, Kenneth Fuchs.
Riverside Theatre’s Comedy Zone this weekend features Shaun Jones, a 22-year veteran comedian who draws his material in part from his family: two teenagers and a 2-year-old. He’s also from Charleston, SC, and that fact complicates his job these days. As he recently told a Texas newspaper, he views his role as healing through laughter.
“While my platform is an entertainer, I hope we can educate people to move forward,” he says.
Judging by his Youtube videos, his act relies on a good bit of ethnic humor, so it’ll be interesting to see if the hometown trauma influences his act.
Jones will perform on the same bill as Tim Moffett, who markets himself as an “agricultural comedian.”
There is a beer-and-wine tasting for $10 prior to the shows, held under the oaks as part of an added summer entertainment effort.
