Weekend Matinee Series Take the Rumpus Outside

Guard your tortilla chips and watch out for those far-reaching squirt guns: The clowns are on the loose.

In Troubadour Theatre Company’s loopy new family show, “Funky Punks With Junk in Their Trunks,” a host of zanies in big shoes and rubber noses takes over the outdoor John Anson Ford Amphitheatre. Audience members might be liberally spritzed, have their edibles purloined, find themselves starring in a balancing act on stage and serve as foil-wrapped TV antennae.

This morning matinee, filled with clown antics, stilt walking, acrobatics and an eccentric, found-object motif, kicks off the Ford’s “Big/World/Fun” summer series for young audiences. It could do with tighter staging and fewer musical miscues, but those in the crowd-pleasing cast of professionals know their stuff--some have performed with the Ringling Bros.’ Greatest Show on Earth.

Directed by Matt Walker, “Funky Punks” features ensemble members Tina Aguirre, Luke Fuller, Jennifer Jean Snyder, Ben Johnson, Andy Lopez, Guillermo Robles, Jordan Savage, Mike Teele, Guy Totaro and Walker as a motley collection of anarchic clowns with names such as Squeaker, Ox, Tweedles and Stinky. They emerge from steamer trunks to juggle and tumble, form human pyramids, interact with the audience and do pratfalls and other slapstick routines with happy abandon.

The circus atmosphere is heightened by interludes with a graceful and muscular male and female duo called the Tweaksters (Regan Patno and Julia Snyder), who break up the acts with balletic balancing and spinning routines.

(Troubadour, best known for comic musical romps through the classics, is presenting its main-stage show, “Romeo Hall & Juliet Oates”--Shakespeare’s tragic romance with a 1980s, Hall and Oates rock ‘n’ roll twist--as part of the Ford’s adult evening series Friday and Saturday. See separate review, Page 40.)

* “Funky Punks With Junk in Their Trunks,” John Anson Ford Amphitheatre, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E., Hollywood Hills. Saturday only, 10 a.m. (preceded by an hour of craft activities). Other shows in the “Big/World/Fun” series are “Jaliyaa,” African music, stories and dance (July 14); “The History of Rock,” presented by Academia (July 28); “Home Grown,” storytelling and music (Aug. 11); and “Circus Millennia” (Aug. 25). Adults, $4; children, free. (323) 461-3673. https://www.lacountyarts.org/ford.html.

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Outdoor Fun at Will Geer: More lively family entertainment in a get-away-from-it-all outdoor setting can be found at the rustic Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, nestled in the hills of Topanga Canyon. Theatricum’s annual “Family Fundays” Sunday morning matinees feature professional singers, actors and storytellers presented by Creative Playground and Peter Alsop’s Kids Koncerts in a bill that changes weekly through October.

June offerings are “Legends of King Arthur” (Sunday), singers Mar Harmon and Alsop (June 17) and singer Courtney Campbell (June 24).

Performances in July include Munro Leaf’s “Ferdinand the Bull” (July 1), “Aesop’s Fables” (July 8), comic Dan Crow (July 15) and folk singer Melora Marshall (July 22).

Storyteller and singer Barney Saltzberg kicks off the August lineup (Aug. 5), then come family songs with Alsop (Aug. 12), rock ‘n’ roller Dave Kinnoin (Aug. 19) and Canada’s award-winning children’s recording artist Charlotte Diamond (Aug. 26).

September shows will be “The Velveteen Rabbit” (Sept. 2), acclaimed trio Parachute Express (Sept. 9, with two shows for Grandparents Day), singer Katherine Dines (Sept. 16), Native American storyteller Gayle Ross (Sept. 23) and “Three Tales by Hans Christian Andersen” (Sept. 30).

The series winds up in October with the Banana Slug Stringband’s environmental and science songs (Oct. 7), veteran storyteller Diane Ferlatte (Oct. 14) and theatrical “Halloween Stories” (Oct. 28).

Bring a picnic lunch for after the shows, or just take a walk around the rustic grounds of this family-friendly venue that specializes in professional productions of the classics, from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams, and serves young people with a variety of performance and training programs.

A family enterprise itself, the theater was founded by the late Will Geer, best known as TV’s Grandpa Walton; his daughter, stage and screen veteran Ellen Geer, is its artistic director.* “Family Fundays,” Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga, Sundays at 11 a.m. $7 (babies are free); any five shows, $30. (310) 455-3723; https://www.theatricum.com/.