Get Out: What To Do This Weekend in Laguna Beach

Shakespeare in the Park

When/Where: Friday, June 1. 6:30 p.m. Heisler Park Amphitheater. 375 Cliff Drive.

Why go? The Arts Commission will be presenting a new program “Shakespeare in the Park” starting June 1, 2012. The performance by “Shakespeare’s Fool” will present speeches and original music set to the work of William Shakespeare created by Jason Feddy and John Garner. The weekly Friday performances will be held June 1 through June 22, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. at the Heisler Park amphitheater. Each week guests actors and musicians will join the cast. This program has been funded by the lodging establishments and City of Laguna Beach.

Price: Free

Robert "Sticky" Shaw: Love Kills

When/Where: Saturday, June 2. 6 - 9 p.m. AR4T 210 North Coast Highway.

Why go? AR4T Gallery is pleased to present Love Kills, a solo exhibition by Orange County artist Robert "Sticky" Shaw. Sticky is known for his bold characters taking claim over a complex backdrop of manic lines and collected paper mementos - each small piece an individual memory swirled together to create a multiple-layered landscape through which we walk. A plethora of 1930s-60s newspaper clips saved by his father, love notes, lipstick and music bills become a waking dream of creative drama. For Sticky's first solo exhibit at AR4T Gallery, "Love Kills" is a window into the past, present and future. For more information, visit www.Ar4t.com

Price: Free

LagunaTunes Spring Session Concert 2012

When/Where: Saturday, June 2nd. 7:30 pm. St. Mary's Church. 428 Park Avenue.

Why go? LagunaTunes is wrapping up another season with their spring concert at St Mary’s Episcopal Church. It’s bittersweet for the choir members, however. Roxanna Ward, their beloved director and co-founder of LagunaTunes will be leaving. Come see a wonderful concert, and say to goodbye to the director that brought much inspiration and laughter to the LagunaTunes.

For more information, visit www.lagunatuneschorus.com

Price: Free

Dr. Sue’s Insect and Arthropod Zoo at Nix Nature Center

When/Where: Saturday, June 2. 1 - 4 p.m. 18751 Laguna Canyon Road.

Why go? Dr. Sue Van Vorhis Key, PhD. has a zoo full of amazing live insects and arthropods. Look, listen, and learn! You can even touch an insect, if you like. Try out our insect scavenger hunt, sorting arthropods, and making your own insect to take home! Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Little Sycamore Canyon Staging Area/Nix Nature Center (west side of Laguna Canyon Road/SR-133, approximately 3.5-miles south of I-5/405). Reservations required: 949-497-8324.

Parking: $3. Donations appreciated.

Community Center Open House

When/Where: Saturday, June 2. 1:00-3:00 p.m. Susi Q Senior Center. 380 Third Street.

Why go? Tour the facilities and see what they’re all about! Free light refreshments. Art exhibit and reception. Raffle prizes and ongoing bingo games. Ukulele performances. Children’s Art Table, sponsored by Young Rembrandts Balloons & Caricature Drawing. Mary’s Motivating Moves. Demonstrations for ballroom dancing by Kyne’s Dance Academy. 

Price: Free

Craig B. Smith, author of Counting the Days at Laguna Beach Books

When/Where: Sunday, June 3. 4:00 p.m. Laguna Beach Books. 1200 S Coast Hwy # 105 A.

Why go? Laguna Beach Books is pleased to welcome Craig Smith, author of Counting the Days: POWS, Internees, and Stragglers of World War II in the Pacific. 

The story of six prisoners of war imprisoned by both sides during the conflict the Japanese called the “Pacific War.” As in all wars, the prisoners were civilians as well as military personnel. Two of the prisoners were captured on the second day of the war and spent the entire war in prison camps: Garth Dunn, a young Marine captured on Guam who faced a death rate in a Japanese prison 10 times that in battle; and Ensign Kazuo Sakamaki, who suffered the ignominy of being Japanese POW number 1. Simon and Lydia Peters were European expatriates living in the Philippines; the Japanese confiscated their house and belongings, imprisoned them, and eventually released them to a harrowing jungle existence caught between Philippine guerilla raids and Japanese counterattacks.

Mitsuye Takahashi was a U.S. citizen of Japanese descent living in Malibu, California, who was imprisoned by the United States for the duration of the war, disrupting her life and separating her from all she owned. Masashi Itoh was a Japanese soldier who remained hidden in the jungles of Guam, held captive by his own conscience and beliefs until 1960, 15 years after the end of the war. This is the story of their struggles to stay alive, the small daily triumphs that kept them going — and for some, their almost miraculous survival.

For more information, call 949-494-4779 or visit www.lagunabeachbooks.com.

Price: Admission is free.