Time for the Bard

Indoor theater takes something of a breather during the summer in Ventura County, but the season has been very good to the Bard. It has become a local tradition to experience Shakespeare in the outdoors in these parts, thanks to the increasingly respected Ojai Shakespeare Festival, kicking off its 19th annual event this Friday.

In another corner of the county, the still up-and-coming Shakespeare festival at Cal Lutheran just completed its fifth annual festival.

Ojai’s festival begins with its main offering this year, “Falstaff: The Apprenticeship of Good Prince Hal,” directed and adapted from “Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2,” by John Slade. “Much Ado About Nothing,” featuring OSF interns, will also be presented.

The festival also includes Renaissance feasts, concerts in the round by Madragali and Harmonia Mundi and, from a frothier place, a program called “Romeooo Hall and Juliet Oates,” by the L.A. Troubador Theater Company. They promise an antic mix of things Shakespearean and power balladry. And why not: Shakespeare isn’t as period as he’s cracked up to be.

* Ojai Shakespeare Festival, Friday through Aug. 19, Libbey Bowl, downtown Ojai. $6 to $18, (805) 646-9455, https://www.ojaishakespeare.org.

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Group Experience: There’s more than meets the eye with the current group show at Studio Channel Islands Art Center. The “Second Invitational Art Exhibition” is also a progress report on this finest of new area galleries, on the idyllic grounds of the soon-to-be Cal State Channel Islands.

In sculpture, the work ranges from Linda Elder’s small bronze, “The Future-Which Direction,” with its female subject pointing an accusatory finger, to one of David Elder’s weirdly beguiling sculptures, a female torso with low-slung jeans and a woven halter top--all carefully done in wood--and named “Angie.”

There is a quiet intensity to Jens Pedersen’s oil-on-wood relief piece, suggesting metal and biological life, referring to itself and the outside world at the same time.

Alberta Fins’ “What the Sea Saw” is a good example of her rough mixed-media acumen, akin to the abstracting maneuvers and religious allusions of Rafael Perea de la Cabada’s “Baptism of the Resplendent House.”

There are cross-connections in the gallery, as well, as with Donna Granata’s sympathetic photographic portrait of John Nava, one in her ongoing series of artist studies. Nearby on the wall, we find Nava’s richly realistic painting, “The Kiss,” a wryly romantic painting of an amorous encounter, on a movie set.

Some of the deepest subjects are, on the surface, elementary. Photographer John Nichols shows a mysteriously entrancing study in shadow and line, in the form of “Bike,” while Ojai painter Michael Dvortcsak’s “Artichoke” is a beautifully lit and beautifully seen object, in all its prickly, material splendor.

These and other sights beckon, and remind us of the regional importance of the hosting venue.

* “Second Invitational Art Exhibition,” Studio Channel Islands Art Center, 1 University Drive, Camarillo. Ends Aug. 25. Thur.-Sat., noon-3 p.m. [805] 383-1368.

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Country in the County: Country music has its fair share of fans in the area and a long-standing spot on the airwaves, thanks to KHAY (100.7 FM). So where’s the country culture, live and in person? We get rock notables passing through town at the Ventura Theatre, but what’s wrong with the C&W; picture?

For one week, at least, C&W; fans should be in hog heaven at the county fair. For the price of admission to the fair, we’ll see the arrival of three stars from three different generations and niches in the country scene.

First up, at 1 p.m. next Tuesday, is Glen Campbell, who fused country and pop in days of yore, turning Jimmy Webb classics such as “Wichita Lineman” into the stuff of legend. Now he has his own theater in Branson, Mo., and a Web site (which greets the cyber-visitor with a cornball “I am on-line, man.”

Wynonna shows up on Wednesday night, offering a bridge between country and rock audiences.

Young country star Brad Paisley, like Campbell a fine guitar player and charismatic singer, arrives next Thursday, on a bill with Pam Tillis.

Paisley has a sweet and strong voice, and picks a mean guitar--those licks on his hit “Me Neither” made at least one listener stop the car and listen, jaw dropping in awe. *

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Glen Campbell, Wynonna, Brad Paisley, Tuesday-Wednesday and Aug. 9; Ventura County Fair, Seaside Park, 10 W. Harbor Blvd., Ventura; (805) 656-1260.