Long Beach Shakespeare Company

My face hurt when I left the theater today.
I went with a work colleague to see The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged and don’t think I stopped laughing for the entire hour and a half!
An amazing performance by three amazing women; if it weren’t their final show I’d go back and see it again.
I was almost pulled onstage but was able to pull rank on my intern and send her up. Ashley decided to call her «Bob», and new nickname was born heheheh.
After today I will certainly be returning again, and again…

I love their performances. The theater is small so there are no bad seats. This season looks like a lot of fun. They are celebrating the Bard’s 450^th birthday so there will be more Shakespeare related plays and lectures.

I’ve seen several of their productions over the years, both in and out of their theatre. Every single thing I’ve seen has been an absolute pleasure.
I love going to plays in their theatre. With some really nice restaurants nearby, I’ve enjoyed some very pleasant evenings full of food, wine and Will. (Try the Italian place just up the street!)
This troupe never fails to please. Always delightful and often original. My favorite was in the ‘90s when they did a decidedly non-​Shakespearian presentation of Dracula in a local Methodist church. More recently, their production of Hamlet was just fantastic.
Clearly, this is a group of talented, educated and passionate people doing something they love. They seem to be a mix of professional actors and local amateur talent. (Emphasis on the word the word «talent») I saw something Shakespearian at the Broad recently that made me wish I was back in Long Beach watching this troupe. I’ve learned to trust this company implicitly. And it’s great to hear that they’ve expanded their modest little theatre.
«There’s nothing ill can dwell in such a temple. If the ill spirit have so fair a house, good things will strive to dwell with ‘t.»

I’ve always considered complaining about something you got for free abhorrent, especially when the givers are attempting to spread culture and knowledge to the underprivileged.
I therefore feel REALLY bad criticizing this group for their well-​meaning efforts, but I must be honest out of respect for all concerned.
Of the area’s Shakespeare-​performing troupes, Long Beach Shakespeare Co. trots the line of most amateur.
First off, I understand that free Shakespeare probably translates to actors performing for the sake of acting and getting little to no pay out of it; consequently, this likely means taking whomever one can get to fill roles.
The performances I have seen featured young girls as bearded men (photo:
) and spurned male lovers (photo:
). This wouldn’t have been so bad, if in their endeavors to maintain the illusion of being men they didn’t ham up their parts with these really incomprehensible, fake accents. I was a bit confused, at first, thinking the characters were really women disguised as men like Viola from «Twelfth Night,» but I was wrong.
Now, I know that in Shakespeare’s day the acting game was primarily unisexual, with men cast in all the roles. However, in this case it was simply awkward. Sure, there are some iconic Shakespeare characters that could be cast as either gender (Robin Goodfellow/​Puck, Ariel, etc), but it’s really difficult to suspend disbelief when you see a girl with a painted on beard.
It’s this sort of thing that makes one wonder what would happen if they decided to produce «Othello» and no African-​American men auditioned.
While there was unrealistic over-​acting, there was also pandemic underacting with no feeling applied to the dialogue. Sometimes you’d have some of these child performers saying lines facing away from the audience and whole chunks of the script would sail astray and disappear on the wind. Without having previously read or seen the play, I was completely lost.
Plus Bixby Park’s stage is a bit challenging to get comfortable watching as the «seating area» is almost entirely cement pavement with a very narrow strip of grass right in abutting the platform, which was a bit hard and offered little padding and you had to crane your neck to see over the edge of the stage. Being blanket-​bringing audience members, it wasn’t exactly pleasant on the ol’ spine.
In truth, I felt a bit misled. The ads for the event were emblazoned with the sun of the Southern California Renaissance Pleasure Faire’s logo, boasting that they would have performers from the faire there. It read like this was a production by one of the casts that regularly perform at the faire. In the end, they did have some of the musicians (photo:
), plus the faire’s Queen Elizabeth I came to walk around and mingle before the show (photo:
). They were gone once the play started, with the music for the show provided by a lone man on a banjo.
It’s equivalent to watching a high school production with the few adult actors seemingly there as someone’s parent filling in where they’re needed.
Well, I applaud the company for their hard work and well-​placed intentions.
If you love supporting community theater no matter the quality, by all means, watch their performances and donate to the cast.
Looks like they’re running their free Shakespeare festival from July 7 – 29, this year. Not sure which play they’re performing. When I visit their webpage for the event (link:
), I get another picture of SoCal RenFaire’s Queen Elizabeth (who isn’t a part of the company as far as I know) and a list of ticket prices.
UPDATE, July 10: Their website regarding their free Shakespeare festival has been amended to read:
«Two dates only: Saturdays, August 4 and 11 at 2pm
at Long Beach Towne Center
7575 Carson Boulevard, Long Beach, CA 90 808
in the Courtyard in front of Edwards Cinema
Off the 605 Fwy at Carson in Long Beach»

Thank you for coming out to Bixby Park, CA. to perform for us amateur Shakespearean fans!!! Thank you for putting all your effort into the play despite that the stage wasn’t big enough for a fancy set… I thoroughly enjoyed it; thank you for taking time to take pictures with local Shakespeare fans. I’ll come back online and add these pics with them later. I had the priviledge of going to the 13^th Shakespeare Festival at Bixby Park, Long Beach, CA. with a guy friend of mine who’s also into Shakespeare’s works. It mattered with the company you hang with when going to a Shakespearean play. I can tell that all the actors have worked hard for making sure that the audience had a great time, and surely enough, I did. It’s been a long time since I saw a play, this time I got to enjoy his «The Merry Wives of Windsor». The only thing I didn’t like about the venue was that it was in a park where I had to sit on the ground with a blanket… which was fine for the environment, but it was slightly uncomfy — -other than that, the performance was great!

Great theater, great actors, great art! Go support your local arts!

Production of Machiavelli’s «Mandragola»
Hungry for an intimate, live-​theater experience? Then try out LB Shakespeare in Bixby Knolls. Their current production, Machiavelli’s «Mandragola» is delightful — this farce is well-​acted and well-​directed. There is even original music composed by Edmund Velasco that is perfectly inserted between scenes. Yes, the theater (and stage) is tiny — bring 35 friends and you will fill the house. You just can’t go wrong for $ 20.
I’ll be watching for their «Merry Wives of Windsor» this summer at Bixby Park.

The Long Beach Shakespeare Company is a wonderful organization. In addition to Shakespeare, they also take on thought-​provoking and edgy productions of contemporary works.
Denis McCourt is an incredible talent and the productions he directs are absolutely riveting. That isn’t to say they are necessarily lighthearted entertainment. For example, The Exonerated told of individuals who spent years on death row to later be discovered to be innocent. His production of Bent told of the horrific treatment of gays by the Nazis — and while it showed the depths of the human experience, it also showed that love can be found in the worst of circumstances. Long Beach is lucky to have Denis and the LBSC.

I was trying to come up with something cool and out of the norm for a birthday present for the roomie and I happened upon a review of «Much Ado About Nothing» by the Long Beach Shakespeare Company on Atlantic in Bixby Knolls area of town.
So I’m thinking, I love The Bard, giving a night on the town for an inexpensive birthday present will make me look good…
We both had a blast. The theater is tiny. But as someone said, «The play is the thing!» It is Shakespeare after all.
This is the first play we have seen at LBSC and it was great. We were in the very front row of the small theater and the actors were practically tripping over our feet.
The acting was terrific. The music was terrific. The scenery was very crafty for such a small space. Overall, brilliant.
I am going to put myself on their mailing list to stay current with their productions — and then go often.