TRAVEL Chicago theater blooms outside and out of town

Chicago Shakespeare Theater is keeping its show docked at its Navy Pier facility and Oak Brook’s First Folio Theatre is taking the summer off before re-commencing in the fall, but playgoers eager to swap the urban concrete for wide-open greenery can still find opportunities for scenic road/Metra excursions, fresh-air picnics and entertainment under starry skies.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Midsommer Flight, July 15-Aug. 21. Lovers and pixies and clowns romp Shakespeare’s Athenian forests in Chicago parks on the North, South and West sides this summer. Details: http://MidsommerFlight.com

The Winter’s Tale, Oak Park Festival Theatre at Austin Gardens in Oak Park, July 16-Aug. 20. A tale begun in winter needs a happy ending in a summery setting (after a BEAR chase) and Shakespeare provides us both. Details: http://OakParkFestival.com

Midsummer Mayhem: Mad World, Shakespeare’s Motley Crew, July 30-Aug. 28. The merry rag-tag rascals of Ravenswood’s Independence and Winnemac Parks present their annual showcase, this year featuring favorite looney scenes from Shakespeare and his contemporaries. Details: http://SMCplays.com

Pearl’s Rollin With the Blues, Writers Theatre in Glencoe, June 23-July 24. Whenever you see the names of diva Felicia P. Fields and director Ron OJ Parsons on the same playbill, good times and splendiferous music are guaranteed. Details: http://WritersTheatre.org

Dear Jack, Dear Louise, Northlight Theatre in Skokie, July 7-Aug. 7. What could be more romantic than a pair of lonely “pen-pals”—one, a doctor in the army and the other, an aspiring actress in New York City—conducting pre-Facebook trysts during World War II? Details: http://Northlight.org

Zorro: The Musical, Music Theater Works, Aug. 11-21. Spiderman, Superman and the Scarlet Pimpernel all have their own musicals, so why has it taken so long for someone to write some swashbuckling songs for this Latino-American masked crusader? Details: http://MusicTheaterWorks.com

Home, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre at the Noyes Arts Center in Evanston, June 5-19. Samm-Art Williams’ 1978 play (presented by Tim Rhoze as an old-fashioned “tent show”) recounts the re-assimilation struggles of a Black draft-evader in a society still reeling from the recent wars at home and abroad. Details: http://FJtheatre.com. Photo by Kara Roseborough

Hand to God, Paramount Theatre Productions at the Copley Theatre in Aurora, June 1-July 10. Richard Askins’ searing criticism of religious dogma and teenage angst carried to extremes does for fuzzy sock-puppets what Stephen King did for clowns. Details: http://ParamountAurora.com. Below: Hand to God’s Jessica (Felicia Oduh). Photo by Amy Nelson