It’s a sunny, humid Sunday at upper Frick Park, where about 80 people sit on folding chairs and blankets, and the Shakespeare comedy “Two Gentlemen of Verona” is unfolding before them.
In what would be the front row if this had been a theater, a boy and a man, holding a child’s bicycle, make haste to exit, their path clipping stage left. At stage right, also up front, a baby who had been facing the stage while serenely playing with paper is now face up, as a wet diaper is quietly changed in full view of the actors ...
Just another day at the office for the cast of Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks.
A Shakespeare play for some is a hallowed experience, meant to be in a darkened theater, with the audience’s full attention on the performers.
For the traveling troupe that stages Shakespearean works in Frick, Highland and Arsenal parks this month, a comedy of errors can happen in plain sight as the show goes on.
The weekend’s performances mark the beginning of the company’s 14th season, opening in Frick Park, off of Beechwood Boulevard at Nicholson Street, between the Blue Slide playground and the dog park. The offering for 2018 is the comedy “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” believed by many to be the Bard’s first play.
The weather is among the ingredients to savor or contend with in outdoor venues designed for bike riders, dog walkers and families at play.
On Sunday, two scooter riders — Carlos Badnes of
Shadyside and his son Biel, 5 — were “just scooting by,” Mr. Badnes said, and heard the music that was a prelude to “Two Gentlemen.”
They stopped to listen and decided to stay for the play.
“He’s sort of a Chatham Baroque groupy,” Mr. Badnes said of his son. “He loves the sound of the lute.”
This would be Biel’s first Shakespeare experience, and how long they would stay “is up to him,” his father said.
The casual setting and the quick getaway for families are among the draws, besides the chance to see an abridged Shakespeare work for free (donations are requested but not required).
Those were among the attractions for Ellen Sikov of Squirrel Hill and Bambi Brewer of Regent Square, who were sitting side by side as the play got under way Sunday.
Ms. Brewer said the elements are part of the fun, recalling the performance of “King Lear” when, “during the ‘blow winds’ speech it got quite blustery.” For several years, she has been bringing her son, Oliver, 13, who awaited the play while snacking on chips and soda.
Among the cast Sunday was Jennifer Tober, an adjunct theater instructor at the University of Pittsburgh who is the founder and artistic director for Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks. Speaking before the performance, she recalled various times when the actors contended with fighting dogs or dogs chasing squirrels, and many a human-made distraction.
“Once, an ice cream truck driver kept his music on, loudly, and when an actor went to speak with him, there was almost a fistfight,” she said.
There have been children who stand up and call out the actors on their disguises — for example: “That’s a man dressed as a woman!” And when the company performed on the North Side, at Allegheny Commons near the Pittsburgh Aviary, there were necessary pauses for freight trains to pass.
The troupe does follow one traditional theater protocol — the stage manager requests that cell phones be silenced. The sounds of nature are quite enough, thank you. Technology, however, will find a way.
“We have had drones above a performance,” said Ms. Tober, a first for the actor who had worked with New York City companies doing Shakespeare under the sun and stars.
In 2005, she was inspired by what she saw as a natural amphitheater in Frick Park and launched the company with “As You Like It.”
In “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” she is playing the comic role of Launce, a servant who is loyal to a fault — to his dog, Crab.
Ms. Tober is using a puppet, designed by production designer Lisa Liebering, although there had been talk of the real thing. Relying on a dog to hit its cues in a park full of other dogs and distractions did not seem like a good idea, although dogs aren’t the only potential animal distractions.
Lauren Scheller-Wolf, who previously acted with PSIP, and her husband, Alan, were attending Sunday’s performance, as they have for all of the company’s 14 years.
They recalled not only motorcycles racing through Highland Park last year during “Henry V,” but Mr. Scheller-Wolf asked, “Remember someone brought a duck? I know there was a pig … .”
“Yes!,” the actress said. “Someone brought a pet pig!”
After diaper changes, downpours and drones, a pet pig in the audience seems pretty tame for a day with Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks.
Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks’ “Two Gentleman of Verona” is approximately 90 minutes with no intermission. Lawn chairs suggested. Upcoming performances are at 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays, Sept. 8-9 in Highland Park on Reservoir Drive; Sept. 15-16 in Arsenal Park, 40th Street between Penn Avenue and Butler Street, Lawrenceville; and Sept. 22-23, at Frick Park.
Sharon Eberson: seberson@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1960. Twitter: @SEberson_pg.
First Published: September 2, 2018, 8:58 p.m.
