Shakespeare’s Magical ‘Dream’

If you’ve never considered Shakespeare to be family fare, you haven’t seen “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at the Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga. This mirthful, woodsy romp about enchanted lovers, mischievous fairies and vagabond actors has become a summer tradition at the inviting outdoor theater, where it will open for a fourth season on Friday.

“I think the reason we keep doing it is that it’s a story that’s so easy for younger audiences to understand,” said Susan Angelo, who directs this year’s production and plays Helena, one of the giddy lovers. “It has so many of the magical qualities of Shakespeare and such beautiful rhythms. And the emotions, the passions are so easily understandable to kids,” she said--at least to the kids who aren’t “afraid to go into the whole territory of fairies and goblins.”

Children’s readiness to “jump into that whole area,” she said, means that sometimes they accept the world Shakespeare created more than some adults do.

And parents who aren’t familiar with Shakespeare don’t have to worry about “heavy concepts” or “a bunch of people running around in tights, pontificating,” Angelo said.

That doesn’t mean that the language has been changed, Angelo assured, although there has been some editing, mostly of some archaic phrases. But she said she thinks the play is “a good way for parents to expose their kids to Shakespeare so that when they go to school, their first response to Shakespeare is a positive one.”

Although this production will be “pretty much the same” as in previous years, the look will be somewhat different because of recent renovations--including new stadium seating--that have opened up the tree-lined hillside behind the stage and expanded the stage area.

“The big house structure on stage right is gone,” Angelo said, “so we have a stage twice as big as before, and that definitely opens up more staging possibilities.”

The natural canyon setting has always been a perfect backdrop for Shakespeare’s magical comedy, and it again plays a big part in the show, with “fairies popping up behind trees and running through the hillside. We really try to use the elements and combine the actors with the outdoors, and that’s another reason I think people love to bring kids here, as opposed to being inside in a black box theater.”

The production is a family affair in another way, too: It features three generations of the acting Geer family, mostly veteran stage and screen professionals. Ellen Geer, the theater’s artistic director, who has directed the show in the past, this year plays Titania, queen of the fairies.

Her brother, Thad Geer, is the comically spell-bound Bottom; her sister, Melora Marshall, plays Puck; her mother, Herta Ware, plays Starveling and Moonshine; her son, Ian Flanders, plays Flute and Thisbe; and daughter Willow is the first fairy.

The theater is named for its founder and the family patriarch, the late Will Geer, widely known as TV’s Grandpa Walton.

* “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, Fridays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Also a special Labor Day show, Monday, 5 p.m. Ends Sept. 14. Adults: $12 to $15; seniors, students and Equity members: $8 to $10; children age 6 to 12: $5; age 5 and under, free. (310) 455-3723.

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Irish Diversity: Local young people and others from Northern Ireland will present the results of an unusual collaboration when they open in “The Fire King” at the Malibu Stage on Sept. 3. This original youth opera, featuring 22 performers, ages 15 to 24, revolves around their feelings about such contemporary issues as unemployment, single-parent families and political corruption.

Produced by the nonprofit Agoura-based youth theater company See Above Productions and the Playhouse of Derry, Northern Ireland, the show is the second half of an exchange program that began in 1995 when the American contingent performed at the Edinborough Festival in Scotland.

“Our mission statement,” said Stacey McEnnan, president of See Above Productions, “is to get people from very diverse backgrounds together. Here, youth of different cultures, including Protestant and Catholic kids from Northern Ireland, are working harmoniously to put on a show about concerns they all share.”

The show’s music is by respected Irish composer Kevin O’Connell, who is serving as musical director; lyrics are by John Goodby; Joe Devlin of Dublin’s Abbey Theatre is directing.

* “The Fire King,” Malibu Stage, 29243 Pacific Coast Highway, Sept. 3-7, 8 p.m. $20. (818) 774-8075.