The outsiders

Photo: © Messenger Theatre Company

This year sees the first edition of what could become the annual Plays Outside festival of free outdoor theater: 3 weeks, 12 plays, 14 parks in 5 boroughs. Some of the plays are designed for kids; many will entertain them. Each will move around the city between September 7 and 26.

Photo: © Messenger Theatre Company

This year sees the first edition of what could become the annual Plays Outside festival of free outdoor theater: 3 weeks, 12 plays, 14 parks in 5 boroughs. Some of the plays are designed for kids; many will entertain them. Each will move around the city between September 7 and 26.

Airmid Theater Company: Swetnam the Women Hater
In 1619 London, a group of women anonymously wrote this satire in response to a pamphlet written by swordsman Joseph Swetnam. It's a battle of the sexes, with enough swordfighting and cross-dressing to keep most kids happy. Ages 5 and up.

American Theatre of Harlem: Hal the Wit
ATH specializes in work from the African-American tradition. In this interactive show for kids, an ensemble of actors headed by storyteller Hal tells three tales of triumph and survival. All ages.

Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre: Hamlet
Hamlet, from the extraordinarily adventurous CAMT, premiered in '97. This is a difficult production: The audience must take in not only the puppets, but also the actors who manipulate them and double as the characters whose strings they're pulling. It's an interesting conceit, and attention is rewarded. Teens.

Drilling Co.: Two Gentlemen of Verona
Drilling Co.'s Gentlemen was, apparently, the hit of last year's Shakespeare in the Parking Lot season. If the company could make a go of the Bard in an LES municipal lot—with cars honking and skateboarding kids taking shortcuts through the play—then it can make a go of it anywhere. Ages 10 and up.

Freestyle Rep: The Mike and Laura Show
Two Freestyle Rep members combine elements from the troupe's most popular improv shows: TheatreSports has audience members yelling out suggestions for improvisational games in which two teams compete; in Spontaneous Broadway, they scribble ideas for musical scenes, which the actors stage. Ages 8 and up.

Messenger Theatre Company: Baba Yaga: Little Girl Stew
Messenger premiered Baba Yaga (its first try at children's theater) this spring. Deftly using masks and shadow puppets—the company's trademarks—it tells a surreal story, based on Russian folklore, about a girl whose stepmother sends her into the dark forest in search of light from the witch. Ages 5 and up.

Philippe Petit: Lippo
With Mordicai Gerstein's children's book The Man Who Walked Between the Towers such a success, lots of kids know who Petit is and how he crossed between the Twin Towers on a high-wire. Now they can see him doing something far less spectacular—the juggling, magic, charm-the-crowd act that was once his bread and butter. Who's Lippo? Well, in these cirque days, having a French-clown persona can't hurt.—Barbara Aria

For a Plays Outside schedule, visit www.shakespeareproject.org.