When we say "King John," what's the first thing that springs to mind? "I find it intriguing," Scott Douglas notes, "that Shakespeare left out any reference to either the Magna Carta or Robin Hood - the two things modern folk recognize about John." Douglas is a well-respected actor and member of Animal Fire Theatre Company, an Olympia troupe dedicated to outdoor summer Shakespeare. After winning universal praise for his work in such shows as AFT's Hamlet and Two Gentlemen of Verona, plus star turns in Olympia Little Theatre's Shadowlands and Theater Artists Olympia's The Complete Works of Wm. Shakespeare (Abridged), he's taken on his first directorial project with AFT's King John.

"The process of choosing me to direct and John as our play was a process of research, consensus and default," Douglas explains. "We wanted to choose (a history) that had not been done directly in the area. I ... was intrigued by both King John and Henry VI, because who doesn't love Joan of Arc?" Shakespeare (Abridged) includes "a shtick about King John and the public's near-universal ignorance of the play. That got me intrigued ... Since I brought it to the group and no one else was aching to direct, it fell to me," he says, adding, "Art by committee!" The play is about a struggle for control over the English throne, which, in the early 13th century, was up for grabs between various nobles and France. Like Game of Thrones, it includes a pivotal moment in which a boy takes a tumble down a wall. And yes, contestants must win or die. Unlike Game of Thrones, however, the outcome is decided in less than two hours.

"My directorial concept," he says, "is to focus on the people and personalities driving the play ... The (first of our) two biggest technical demands are designing a set that can be easily and quickly broken down and transported without breaking down the cast in the process. The other issue is lighting. Our lighting designer, while steadfastly reliable, has a tendency to quit work a few minutes earlier every night in late summer. So we're playing with the start time again this year to hopefully avoid performing under a scorching midday sun or in the dark." Thus, "The play will run August 6 through 23, Thursdays through Sundays, (with) all shows at 6:00 pm. We'll be in Priest Point Park for the first and third weekends and are working with Tumwater to do a run at the Tumwater Golf Course."

Of course, Animal Fire isn't the only theatrical troupe offering live summer entertainment at a reasonable price. Harlequin in Olympia's downtown State Theater starts the pageant wagon rolling with its annual musical revue. This year, the jukebox extravaganza is called Sixties Chicks Too and opens on June 18. It's a reboot of a popular 2009 show, but with new songs shuffled into its 30-song repertoire. That show's planned for at least five weekends, with sellout crowds driving a possible extension. Harlequin Productions will also stage Harper Lee's immortal drama To Kill a Mockingbird, starting August 20. Olympia Little Theatre offers 4000 Miles, Amy Herzog's Pulitzer Prize nominee about a young man who leaves Seattle to hang with his nonagenarian grandmother in New York. OLT puts the pedal to the metal on July 10. That's also the day Tacoma Musical Playhouse first presents its production of West Side Story, Bernstein and Sondheim's beloved musical retelling of Romeo and Juliet. This summer finds Lakewood Playhouse wrapping a run of Drood, a find-your-fate musical based on an unfinished novel by Charles Dickens, and rehearsing its take on A Few Good Men, Aaron Sorkin's riveting courtroom drama that opens Sept. 11.

There are a few more beautiful, evocative places to see live drama than the Pacific Northwest's great outdoors. Grab a blanket, pack some snacks, and get ready to, as Shakespeare says, "be possess'd with double pomp, to guard a title that was rich before, to gild refined gold." Granted, the Bard was comparing that to "gild(ing) the lily," but it's still pretty bloody entertaining.