School is out, summer fun begins

Summer doesn’t arrive officially for several more weeks, but today being the last day of school, in the minds of most kids, summer has started.

But let’s not close the book quite yet on the 2016-2017 season. “Auntie Mame,” Theatre Macon’s final show of the current season, opens Friday night and runs through June 4.

While several local theaters use their summer productions to launch their upcoming seasons, Theatre Macon’s upcoming production of “Driving Miss Daisy” stands alone. This heart-warming look at race, age and time past will run for four days only, June 15-18. It is interesting to note that a brief episode in this Alfred Uhry hit (also made into a motion picture) shows up in a recent production at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, “The Temple Bombing.”

A summer production that will interest parents of young children is Macon Little Theatre’s annual summer show, divided into Mini Camp (mornings, June 5-9) and Main Camp (afternoons June 5-9 and June 12-16). Both camps culminate in a public performance. I can say from experience (more accurately, from my children’s experience) that these are excellent opportunities.

Another well-known camp is “Stageworks” at the Douglass Theatre. Running June 5-July 14, this experience is for kids ages 7-14.

WEEKEND EVENTS

Speaking of the Douglass, it seems that with each passing week the historic theater’s stature grows as a hotbed of quality entertainment. For the next three months, the theater’s front plaza hosts Jazz in the Courtyard on Sunday evenings. Earlier in the day on Sunday, the Douglass will present the NT Live broadcast of Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead,” an absurdist spoof based on two minor characters from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.”

Amazingly, the Douglass is one of theaters that presents the National Theater HD productions. The Douglass is also one of the few theaters that shows the 10 productions in the Metropolitan Opera’s Live in HD series.

Also this weekend, in a last hurrah for collegiate music this season, Wesleyan College’s Confucius Institute will present a guzheng concert on Saturday. The guzheng, a musical instrument known as the “Chinese zither,” will be played by Yin Huang.

HISTORY + RAP = 2018

This time next year, the Broadway in Atlanta series will be presenting “Hamilton” at the Fox Theatre. Single tickets are not yet available, but when they are you bet that they will vanish like snow in April. Be vigilant!