Dear Adventure Avenues,
This summer, my brother, uncle and I went to Shakespeare in the Park at the Old Zoo in Griffith Park. We saw Coriolanus performed for free by the Independent Shakespeare Co. Shakespeare in the Park runs every summer from about the end of June to about the beginning of September, Wednesday through Sunday night. This should be on everyone’s SoCal bucket list for summer.
Where it is & How to Get There
We had a little bit of trouble identifying where to park, but after some driving around, and following some smaller versions of the “Follow this path” sign, we finally found where to park (The Merry Go Round Lot 2). This was not necessary our fault as there was quite a bit of construction.
The show did not start until 7pm, but we arrived around 4:30pm to make sure we got a good spot. There were already some people there at this time, but we were able to get a spot very close to the stage. In fact, we were as close to the stage as we could be!
Since we still had quite a bit of time before the show started, we explored what you could still explore of the Old Zoo. It was really quite sad because there was so much graffiti and trash in the old cages – not to mention how sad it was to think about the poor animals who used to live in such tiny cages.
Once our exploring was done, we ate our picnic packed lunch: Hawaiian roll sandwiches, charcuterie from Trader Joe’s, grapes, and my beverage of choice: A Spindrift!
We hiked over to the bathroom to use it before the show (with the understanding that we probably wouldn’t have time to use it at intermission – Spoiler alert, we did not risk it and try at intermission). They are not the nicest bathrooms (i.e. they’re dark park toilet rooms with no soap to wash your hands in the sinks outside). They were also not super close to where the stage was this year. It is possible that the new stage – which would be a little closer to the bathrooms – could open next year, but we shall see.
We settled in to watch the show, grateful to have brought lots of blankets and warm clothes. It really cooled off and got cold! I wished I had brought a thermos of hot chocolate and maybe one more blanket to be extra cozy! Some sort of back rest like a soft cooler or backpack or pillow if you want to carry it would also be nice since you’re laying on the hill. I used our hard cooler and my purse.
There was no photography during the show, but I snapped this picture at intermission to show what the lighting and stage looked like at this point in time.
All in all, it was a great performance of a lesser known Shakespeare play! We were glad to have gotten to see it during opening weekend.
PS
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