Family : Shakespeare for Children in Outdoor Festival Setting

It’s a bird, it’s a plane . . . no, it’s Super Shakespeare--able to recite all 154 Shakespearean sonnets upon demand.

The caped Bardaholic, otherwise known as actor Paul Bordman, will be joined by jugglers, storytellers, puppeteers, musicians, a 15-minute production of “Hamlet” and bilingual magician Brandon Scott, who performs in Spanish and English. It’s all part of the child-friendly Shakespeare Family Festival, being held in the Japanese Garden of the West Los Angeles Veterans Administration complex on Saturday and Sunday.

Presented by the Shakespeare Festival/LA theater company to complement its ongoing evening production of “Twelfth Night,” the festival “is an opportunity to introduce young people to Shakespeare in a very informal way,” according to festival producer Gail Leone.

The outdoor fantasy setting, with costumed entertainers, fencing demonstrations, a juggling workshop, Renaissance-flavored live music, crafts, art exhibitions and games, is “the perfect environment” to expose children and families to live theater in a very palatable way, Leone said.

The festival’s most important element is audience involvement, she noted. Children are encouraged to come as a character from a Shakespeare play and enter the festival’s daily costume contest--and, if a junior Macbeth or Richard III aren’t quite the ticket, keep in mind that an old Halloween witch’s costume or sparkily fairy wings will do. Audience volunteers also get a chance to dress up during puppeteer Judith Kory’s comic theater presentation of “Goldenlox and the Three Fools.”

Admission is free; craft, workshop and vendor fees will go toward Shakespeare Festival/LA’s “Will Power to the Schools” educational outreach program.

* Shakespeare Family Festival, Japanese Gardens, West L.A. Veterans Administration complex, entrance on Wilshire Boulevard, west of the 405 freeway. Saturday-Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. (213) 489-4127, Ext. 31.

Young at Heart Art: If you’re a kid or a serious art collector, visit the Every Picture Tells a Story gallery where original art by some of the best of the best children’s book illustrators--William Joyce, Maurice Sendak, Hilary Knight, Maira Kalman among them--are on display in the “Festival of Classics” exhibit through Aug. 27. Every Picture Tells a Story, at 7525 Beverly Blvd., is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; (213) 932-6070.