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| - Shakespeare in the Park is a semi-hidden near-gem. Here are a few helpful pointers for the uninitiated.
1. Shows run in the summer until the end of August. They are at 8 pm each night, but are off on Monday night. This season Macbeth is WFSUN, while Taming of the Shrew is TThSat.
2. The location is not the easiest to find. If you enter the park at Bloor and High Park you will pass tennis courts, then a food kiosk on your left. At the four way stop (about a km from the park entrance) the entrance to the amphitheatre is on your right. There will be some people in bright neon coloured shirts standing at the dirt path that leads to the amphitheatre.
3. The cost is a suggested 20$, but is pay what you can. I imagine that anything under 10$ would be heavily frowned upon!
4. Nice warm evenings (where you can wear shorts and a t shirt) are sort of rare, even in summer. On such evenings and weekends, you should arrive at least 15-20 minutes early to get a seat. Otherwise, you will be standing. The amphitheatre doesn't have formalized seats with numbers, so in some places people take up more room than they need with bags and picnic baskets (these are the same people who put their stuff in empty seats on the subway while everyone is standing). To overcome this, arrive early!
5. The acting is done by students from York University. I saw Macbeth this year. The performances each season tend to be good, but will have actors who overact or flub lines here and there, while others are brilliant. The witches in Macbeth were fantastic this season.
6. Bring your own picnic or snacks, but try to be done munching and rattling paper before the performance starts.
7. Before you bring your young kids, remember that Shakespeare has violence in the tragedies and some sexual suggestive humour here and there in the comedies. (I wound up by a family that was constantly groaning and trying to cover their son's eyes every time their was a stabbing in Macbeth. It was kind of funny, but also a bit annoying.)
8. Again, on a nice evening it is worth finding Shakespeare in the Park.
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