It’s officially summer and Southern California has more entertainment options than you have time. Enjoy some of these unique and fun entertainment options.
Aug. 1-2, 4
Santa Clarita Shakespeare Festival
“Measure for Measure”
Info www.scshakespearefest.org/freeshakespeare
What’s better than enjoying Shakespeare? How about enjoying it for free? The location is still being set but this year the festival is celebrating more than 30 years of free Shakespeare.
Now through Aug. 31
Griffith Park Free Shakespeare Festival at the Griffith Park Merry-Go-Round, Parking Lot 2
4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles 90027
Info indieshakes.org
Pack your picnic, shake out your blanket and call your friends for Los Angeles’ biggest theater event of the summer. Each summer, Bard fanatics watch their favorite works come to life at the historic Old Zoo in Griffith Park.
For 15 years the Independent Shakespeare Co. has put on a series of productions each week, inviting audiences to take a seat on the grass (don’t forget your blanket) and enjoy performances like this season’s headliner, the early Shakespeare comedy “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” which will be followed by Christopher Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus.”
Shakespeare by the Sea
Info shakespearebythesea.org
Expand your mind on breezy summer nights by listening to the words of the Bard for free. The program, founded in 1998, will put on two plays this summer, “As You Like It” and “Julius Caesar.”
The troupe takes the plays on tour across Los Angeles, performing for audiences from downtown L.A. to Beverly Hills to Altadena’s Loma Alta Park and more. Here is a partial schedule with all performances held at 7 p.m.
Hermosa Beach Valley Park, Valley and Gould 90254
July 9 ‘As You Like It’
July 10 ‘Julius Caesar’
Newhart Middle School, 25001 Veterans Way Mission Viejo 92692.
July 11 ‘As You Like it’
Wilmington Waterfront Promenade, 301 S. Avalon Blvd. 90744
July 12 ‘As You Like It’
Loma Alta Park, 3330 N. Lincoln Av., Altadena 91001
July 13 ‘Julius Caesar
Verdugo Park, 1621 Canada Blvd., Glendale 91208
July 16 ‘As You Like It’
Polliwog Park, 1601 Manhattan Beach Blvd., Manhattan Beach 90266
July 17 ‘As You Like It’
July 18 ‘Julius Caesar’
Garfield Park, 1000 Park Av., South Pasadena 91030
July 19 ‘Julius Caesar’
July 20 ‘As You Like It’
Roxbury Park, 471 Roxbury Dr., Beverly Hills 90212
July 23 ‘Julius Caesar’
Matinees on the Mountain
Mount Wilson Observatory, 100 Mt Wilson Circle Road, Mt Wilson 91023
Info www.mtwilson.edu/movies
Once a month on Saturday summer afternoons in, the historic Mount Wilson Observatory screens a lineup of sci-fi and astronomy-inspired shorts and feature-length films. take place in the 256-seat auditorium inside the astronomical museum.
July 26 ‘Contact’
Aug. 23 Astronomical Short Films with LA Filmforum
Sept. 27 ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’
Pageant of the Masters
650 Laguna Canyon Rd. Laguna Beach 92651
July 5-Aug. 29
Info www.foapom.com/pageant-of-the-masters/
One of the most unique productions in the world, the Pageant of the Masters re-creates famous works of art with living actors. The 2025 theme is “Gold Coast: Treasures of California.”
Since 1933, “living pictures” at the Festival of Arts has introduced millions to the art of tableaux vivants.
