By Karen Bloom
You don't have to travel to Manhattan to find well-crafted theater. Revivals abound, with everything from classic musicals and Shakespeare to musical revues. And for younger folks, the Long Island Children's Museum even gets into the act, with a summer theater workshop program. It's always fun to see theater outdoors this time of year. Plaza Theatrical Productions offers enjoyable free productions at local parks and libraries. Baldwin Middle School's English Language Arts Department Chairperson (a Molloy College alumnus) Kevin Harrington has been directing his well-received shows throughout the area for many years. His group recently finished its highly satisfying version of "South Pacific" and now moves onto Shakespeare's 'Taming of the Shrew," along with "Showtune," a fully-staged musical celebrating the words and music of Jerry Herman. Younger audiences will especially enjoy Harrington's rendition of "Sleeping Beauty." More Shakespeare can be found from Arena Players, which brings its annual summer shows to the Vanderbilt Museum's cobblestone courtyard, set against the magnificent backdrop of the historic Vanderbilt Mansion. Its "Taming of the Shrew," ends on July 29, followed by the beloved battle-of-the-sexes comedy "Much Ado About Nothing," opening July 31.If you don't want to sit through a full-length production, the Long Island Shakespeare Festival is making the rounds of the region's state parks with abridged adaptations of "Romeo and Juliet" and "As You Like It," through August.Indoors, BroadHollow Theatre Company presents "Oklahoma" this summer, the first production to been seen here since the 2002 Broadway revival. A cast of 30 performs the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic at East Islip's BayWay Arts Center, through July 31. It then moves to Molloy College's Centre Stage, beginning Aug. 13.Over at Merrick's The Stage, "Swing" celebrates the music and dance phenomenon that swept the nation in the '30s and '40s, which has returned today. The all-singing, all-dancing evening features a mix of old and new songs and over 30 tour de force dance numbers. At Long Island Children's Museum, it's the kids who are performing! It all began earlier this month, when the Little Stars duo of songwriter Bari Koral (who has appeared with Norah Jones and Lenny Kravitz, among others) and screenwriter Shari Umansky (who has a feature film slated for release shortly) teamed up to run theater workshops. They began with a 45-minute session on July 10, where their young participants created and performed in "To the Moon and Beyond." Koral and Umansky returned this week, July 26-27, for two full-day workshops in which kids write their own rock musical, including the songs, and then perform on LICM's stage, with the Little Stars band. "The kids are literally creating something from scratch," Koral said, noting that the response from the young participants has been "tremendous." It's a new concept for the two veteran performers, who developed it than six months ago and are sure to bring their theater workshops back to LICM, for those that missed it this time around.For an intensive theater experience, LICM launches a two-week creative dramatics program in August, that builds upon audience interest in the Museum's theater workshops. Great Explorations Through Improvisation focuses on developing imagination through storytelling and plot development, rather than solely focusing on stage performance. "This program will appeal to the child who enjoys writing or playing with 'created-world' fantasy games (such as Yu-Gi-Oh! and Pokemon) as much as it will to the child who wants to be on center stage," explained Jim Packard, LICM's theater specialist.Targeting 8-12 year olds, the full-day program, which runs Aug. 1-12, introduces dramatic techniques and culminates with a final, "invited" performance conceived and developed by the participants. The improvisational program is based on the theories of pioneering British drama educator Brian Way.
