Summer's best outdoor stage events are at Minnesota pizza farms, wineries, parking lots and parks

Star Tribune Staff, Star Tribune

The great outdoors takes on a whole new meaning this summer.

Besides the usual boating, floating, fishing, biking and frolicking in the sun, it's also the season to catch Shakespeare in a park or parking lot, hoist a pint to Bach on the lawn, see the French opera "Faust" at a nature center, enjoy dance performances in gardens or a parking ramp and watch family-friendly movies under the twinkling stars.

Here is our guide to events on outdoor stages through Labor Day weekend. An added attraction is that many of them are free.

American Players Theatre: This $8 million company in Spring Green, Wis., has nine high-gloss shows lined up for its 46th season, including August Wilson's "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom," directed by Minnesota playwright Gavin Lawrence and starring two other mainstays of Minnesota's stages — Greta Oglesby and Nathan Barlow. APT's shows are performed either on a 1,075-seat amphitheater or in a 201-seat indoor theater. Other shows on the roster are "Much Ado About Nothing," Michael Hollinger's "The Virgin Queen Entertains Her Fool" and Brian Friel's "Dancing at Lughnasa." (June 8-Nov. 10, 608-588-7401.)

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