Summer theater is in full swing!

For theater fans, summer usually means Shakespeare. Not that we don't have Shakespeare year-round...he just is one of the only playwrights who's still sticking it out on our stages come late July. A new production of As You Like It opens in Clark Park tonight -- a Philly summertime favorite. Meanwhile, in Wilmington, Rockwood Park hosts Julius Caesar. Critic Gail Obenreder says it's an especially stirring experience during an election year.

But it's not all Shakespeare: Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (which doesn't always mount Shakespeare) stages The Color Purple through August 4. It's Philly director Amina Robinson's second outing with the iconic musical in recent years (she won a Barrymore for directing a 2018 production at Theatre Horizon). We've got reviews of both Julius Caesar and The Color Purple live this week; look out for a review of the Clark Park show (running through Sunday) before the weekend hits.

As always, we hope you're keeping your head above the waves in our ongoing tsunami of political news. Remember that it's ok to look away, take time for yourself, and plug into all the ways we can help each other in our own communities regardless of the national news cycle. Tuning into the work of local artists is a great way to do that. Thanks for joining us during yet another unprecedented week.

Alaina Johns
BSR editor-in-chief