Wave Staff Report
CULVER CITY — The Actors’ Gang brings back the long-anticipated free Shakespeare in the park for families with a production of “As BOO Like It” on Aug. 6, continuing a 15-year tradition of free theater in Culver City Media Park.
Based on William Shakespeare’s “As You Like It” and featuring favorite classic Halloween characters, the 45-minute production will run every Saturday and Sunday in August at 11 a.m. through Aug. 28.
The Actors’ Gang is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and will kick off the celebratory with an adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s classic comedies.
Free Shakespeare in the park for families is a high-energy theatrical performance that weaves modern, cultural, iconic references into classic texts, The Actors’ Gang creates shows specifically designed for multi-generational audiences, introducing children to Shakespeare in a welcoming, kid-friendly environment.
Adapted by Rynn Vogel and directed by Adam Jefferis, “As BOO Like It” features fun characters including Orlando the Vampire, Rosalind the Witch, Jaques Skeleton, Duke Frederick the thumb-wrestling champion, Zombie Charles, Celiacorn, a friendly dragon named Touchstone, and a lovesick ghost named Silvius. It’s a story about love that inspires forgiveness, and in the end, like in all of Shakespeare’s comedies, there’s a spectacular wedding.
Since 2006, more than 29,000 children and adults alike have enjoyed the adaptations.
The Actors’ Gang summer performances are free thanks to support from the city of Culver City and its Cultural Affairs Commission, Sony Pictures Entertainment and the Culver City Art Foundation.
The Actors’ Gang was founded in 1981 by a group of punk rock theater artists looking to create a new style of theater in Los Angeles. The Actors’ Gang mission is to present new, unconventional and uncompromising plays and dynamic reinterpretations of the classics, to restore the ancient sense of the stage as a shared sacred space, to introduce theater to children, and help them find their own creative voices, to bring the freedom of self-expression to the incarcerated.
Over the past 40 years, The Actors’ Gang has performed for audiences in Los Angeles and worldwide, on five continents and in 40 states. Its groundbreaking Prison Project is currently in 13 California prisons.
Each year, thousands of children in Los Angeles public schools discover confidence and creativity through in-school immersion and after-school programs and by participating in classes that encourage acceptance, respect and team building in fun and impactful ways.
