ON THE TOWN:Near-perfect staging of ‘Errors’

Sunday night, we seized a rare opportunity to watch a Shakespeare play. The Shakespeare part was not rare, but the location and cost were things that don’t often happen.

This production of “Comedy of Errors” was produced by the performance troupe Shakespeare by the Sea. It was performed outside on a perfect evening at Grant Howald Park in Newport Beach.

And it was free.

We arrived at the park at 6 p.m., an hour before showtime, so we could relax and eat our picnic dinner of sandwiches. We knew enough not to bring any wine — still there were several large signs to remind us that alcohol was not allowed.

The other signs instructed guests where to sit. If you brought a chair that had a high back (for example, one of those folding patio chairs) you were supposed to sit in the rear. Those with sand chairs or no chairs at all could sit in the front.

The problem was that the location of the “back” kept changing. What I mean is that had we gotten to the park at 5:00, the hill on which we were instructed to sit would have been about half full. So if we had high-back chairs at that time, the “back” would be the middle of the hill.

But by 6:00, the rest of the hill was filled and those high back chairs in the middle were blocking the view of the low-back or no-chair people who arrived later.

I’d like to see more Shakespeare in the park or by the sea or wherever in Newport Beach they want to perform it, but that chair thing has to be straightened out.

So the next time it’s at Grand Howald Park, perhaps someone could put up some cones about three-quarters up the hill. High-back chairs go behind the cones, others go in front.

This is not penalizing the high-back crowd for there is no bad location on that hill.

Our family was pleasantly surprised to see that one of the actors in the troupe was Jill Cary Martin, who was or is teaching at TeWinkle Middle School in Costa Mesa.

Martin was good. In fact, she was very good. I’m no theater critic, that is true, but it was not hard to spot her talent.

I’m just guessing, but I would bet that Martin has a pretty good life. She teaches during the nine months of the school year, and this summer, she pursued another passion, acting, while school was out.

That three months off is one of the great benefits of teaching, and I don’t believe that it is marketed enough by schools. My wife’s father was a math teacher, and I have several in-laws who are teachers, and I have heard many stories about the trips they have taken during the summers because they have the time.

Teachers can drive across the country or hike the Pacific Crest Trail because they have that time.

Or, they can work. But at least they have a choice, unlike the rest of us slaves.

To be honest, I was expecting at the play to be napping by intermission. But the performance was tight and lively, and I watched every minute. It helped that the second half was better than the first half.

That is not always the case. In 1989, my wife and I made the first of many visits to New York and took in “Cats” on Broadway. The show was very popular

We enjoyed the first half, but after intermission we were bored stiff. I was dozing off, doing those annoying jerks of the head whenever it sunk too low, raising it up and hoping no one saw me.

Perhaps it was the cool night air at the park that helped keep me awake Sunday. But really, the performance was good.

The production of “Comedy” was the second of only two Shakespeare performances by the troupe in Newport Beach this summer. It was sponsored by the Newport Beach Arts Commission, and I really hope that next summer they can get these folks back for more. Much more.

If they do, I won’t even bark about the high-backs.