GOINGS ON / SANTA BARBARA : Shakespeare Not for the Stuffy

Some Shakespeare purists may think the best way to enjoy the Bard’s work is at an outdoor venue--flopping down on a blanket, enjoying the open air, whilst nibbling cheese and sipping wine.

Roland Frantz does. After a visit to the acclaimed Oregon Shakespeare Festival a number of years ago, the budding actor was determined to create a similar event in California.

“I decided right there and then that I would be the Angus Bowmer of Santa Barbara,” Frantz said, referring to the man who founded the Ashland, Ore., festival in 1935.

Frantz’s fledgling theater troupe, A Company of Players, will celebrate its inaugural performance at 5:30 this afternoon at Las Positas Friendship Park amphitheater. Their chosen work: the bawdy, whimsical “Much Ado About Nothing.”

Performances will continue Wednesdays through Sundays, concluding June 27. Park grounds will open to picnickers starting at 4 p.m. Pre-show entertainment includes wandering minstrels, jugglers, clowns and puppeteers.

Tickets are $10, children 12 and under are free. This Saturday’s and the June 19 performances are special children’s shows--adults bringing children will be admitted at half price.

“We want very much to involve children in the process of creating theater,” Frantz said. “We want them to learn that Shakespeare is not just for stuffy, elite intellectuals, but for everyone.”

Las Positas Friendship Park is at 1002 Las Positas Road. For more information or reservations, call 568-9455.

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More theater: Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts commences its Summer Theaterfest series today with an adaptation of Dickens’ “Great Expectations” at Solvang’s Festival Theatre. While PCPA also performs its productions in Santa Maria, “Great Expectations” will play in Solvang only.

Show times are 8:30 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays. This production will play through June 26. Tickets range from $11 to $17.

Later in the summer, watch for “Ain’t Misbehavin,” “Oklahoma!,” “The Immigrant,” “West Side Story,” “Love Letters” and “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.” Tickets are on sale for all productions. For more information or reservations, call (800) 549-PCPA.

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And still more thespians in action: Theatre Pacifica presents James McLure’s comedy “Laundry and Bourbon”--which unfolds during a hot summer day in Texas--at La Casa de la Raza. Show times are 8 p.m. Wednesday through June 18 and June 24 through 26; 2 and 7 p.m. June 20 and 27. Tickets are $10, $7 senior citizens. La Casa de la Raza is at 601 E. Montecito St., Santa Barbara. Call 969-6964.

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Have clubs will travel. Oh, and bring an appetite.

The Westside Boys & Girls Club will host its second annual benefit golf tournament and barbecue Saturday at the Santa Barbara Golf Club. The fund-raiser tournament features a two-person team format. Registration fee is $90 per player, which includes green fees, prizes, awards show and barbecue dinner. Feeling particularly lucky? A new car will be given away at a hole-in-one contest--if someone sinks the shot.

Single players can register too; you will be assigned a partner. The catered barbecue dinner, minus the day-at-the-links, is $10, $5 children under 12. Proceeds benefit a variety of youth programs. Call 963-4554.

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Paseo Nuevo’s “Kids’ Passport Arts Festival” continues through the weekend at the Santa Barbara shopping center.

Billed as a “Hands-On Celebration of the Arts,” activities include free arts and crafts workshops Saturday and Sunday with a number of artists providing instruction for youngsters 16 and younger. Registration for the workshops is required, which begins 10 a.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. Sunday. Musical performances and workshops will also be offered at the Paseo Nuevo Amphitheater throughout the weekend.

Theater and dance performances will be held every evening through Sunday at The Center Stage Theatre, located on the second level of the mall.

The mall is at State and De La Guerra streets. For more information, call 687-9702.

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File this under the “hot tickets” category: dance virtuoso Mikhail Baryshnikov will perform for one night only in August at the Arlington Theatre.

The White Oak Dance Project--founded by Baryshnikov and choreographer Mark Morris--presents a four-piece program Aug. 20 that will also make stops in Berlin, Munich, Zurich, Milan and other European venues.

Other dancers: Rob Besserer, Nancy Colahan, Kate Johnson, Marianne Moore, Donald Mouton and Kevin O’Day. Baryshnikov will dance in each of the program’s works. The six-piece White Oak Chamber Ensemble performs the music.

Tickets--and you should get ‘em fast--range from $25 to $55. Purchase tickets at the theater, Ticketmaster outlets or charge by phone, 963-4408. Proceeds will support the Lobero Theatre Preservation Project.