Shakespeare and Shrews: Help Theater, Get Cupcaked

See the Bard favorite, for free, at the park, on your big day.

Did you have themes at your birthday parties, back when you were but a tot? And, if so, what were they?

Was your den covered in clowns, dinosaurs, cowboys, robots, Shakespeare? Didn't you have a Shakespeare-themed birthday bash as a tot, complete with guests in period costume?

No? You still can.

The Independent Shakespeare Company, the spritely troupe behind the free summertime Griffith Park plays, has an offer out for theater-loving sorts who have a birthday on the horizon: Come see a play in the park, round up your Bard-digging buds, encourage them to consider making an ISC donation instead of a gift to you ("or in addition to presents" blithely suggests the company) and then? You'll get a cupcake and a stirring round of "Happy Birthday" sung in your honor.

Really, wouldn't it be rather terrific if every birthday spent at a cultural event ended with a song sung in the birthdayee's honor and some giving back to the cultural event? 

World, please evolve in big-hearted ways to make this dream so.

Birthday people? Just let "House Manager Sarah" know when you arrive at the Old Zoo in Griffith Park on a play night. And you're going soon, yes? Because "The Taming of the Shrew" opened on Thursday, July 24.

The Scene

Want to find new things to do in Los Angeles? The Scene's lifestyle stories have you covered. Here's your go-to source on where the fun is across SoCal and for the weekend.

Theodore Payne Foundation's ‘poppy-ular' Poppy Days Spring Sale is about to sprout

The Broad is broadening: The contemporary art museum just unveiled a major expansion plan

The theater company has been posting photos of an actual shrew puppet to stir excitement, because, obviously, shrew puppets equal instant excitement.

We're not even being snarky. It's dang whimsical.

And if you weren't born in late July or August? You can still see "Twelfth Night" or "Shrew" for free.

No one is stopping you. Maybe only your fear of seeing banter that is so fresh and saucy that it might put any other banter you've enjoyed in your banter-enjoying life to shame. Shakespeare is just that good.

Really, why didn't we all have Shakespeare-themed birthday parties as kids? Balloons covered in famous quotes? Neck ruffs for everyone? Reciting of famous monologues for prizes? Pin the tail on the donkey-headed gentleman from "A Midsummer Night's Dream"?

Copyright FREEL - NBC Local Media
Contact Us