Watch Shakespeare under the stars this summer

ENTERTAINMENT, FOOD, FAMILY and friends will converge under the stars on the scenic shore of Lake Tahoe this summer as Lake Tahoe‘s Shakespeare Festival launches its 42nd season.

Featuring live entertainment seven nights a week from July 11-Aug. 24 at Sand Harbor State Park, the season is anchored by the Festival’s main-stage production of William Shakespeare’s enchanting romantic comedy As You Like It.

“We are thrilled to continue the Festival’s four-decade legacy of producing extraordinary professional theater under the stars,” says Festival Artistic Director Charles Fee. “The breathtaking view of Lake Tahoe is the perfect backdrop for our season.

Shakespeare’s most famous and oft-quoted speeches, “All the world’s a stage,” and is the origin of the phrase “too much of a good thing.” The play is performed Tuesdays-Sundays each week at 7:30 p.m. Regional theater veteran Edward Morgan directs the production.

A multi-event Monday Night Showcase series will augment the Festival’s 2014 mainstage production and feature a diverse array of live music and entertainment from a variety of genres. Monday Night Show- case performances will begin at 7:30 p.m. each Monday starting July 14.

The Festival experience is complimented by al fresco dining at its on-site restaurant—Shakespeare’s Kitchen. Patrons also may choose to bring their own food or drink for picnicking.

Shakespeare at North Star House
During a one-night performance, Bear Yuba Land Trust and Quest Theaterworks will bring outdoor summer theater back to Nevada County audiences with the production of Twelfth Night.

Quest Theaterworks will present a fun, revised version of Twelfth Night—“a big, broad comedy with some poignancy”—to the lawn of North Star House in Grass Valley Saturday, July 5 at 5 p.m.

“Shakespeare wrote 37 plays. This is his craziest cast of characters,” says Artistic Director Scott Ewing.

The North Star House was designed in 1905 by the renowned California Arts and Crafts architect Julia Morgan.

(Photo: Joy Strotz)