LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The fourth annual Shakespeare at the Lake is expanding into another community and adding new performances.

This year’s play is “The Taming of the Shrew,” with the actors and crew now in the final weeks of fine-tuning the production.

The play is set outside in Lakeport at Library Park with beautiful Clear Lake as the backdrop. It is a joint effort each year between Mendocino College Lake Center and the Lake County Theatre Co.

This year, the Clear Lake Chamber of Commerce is also stepping in to help a long-held dream of director, John Tomlinson, come to fruition. A second weekend of free performances will be held in Clearlake at Austin Park in what is hoped to be the first of many years.

Performances run Saturday, July 27, and Sunday, July 28, in Lakeport at Library Park, and Friday, Aug. 2, Saturday, Aug. 3, and Sunday, Aug. 4 in Clearlake at Austin Park. All shows start at 6:30 p.m. Food, beverages and wine will be for sale.

The performances are free to the public.

The production would not be possible without the support of the Lake County Friends of Mendocino College who find the sponsors for the show each year.

Tomlinson has always been a big fan of Shakespeare outdoors.

“The first play I was in was ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ in a Shakespeare in the Park presentation in Santa Barbara. When it comes to Shakespeare at the Lake here in Lake County, I mainly think of two big moments,” he said.

“Word had gotten around a little bit in our theater community that I wanted to do an outdoor Shakespeare production. So one day I was helping out as a volunteer at a booth during the Kelseyville Pear Festival. Dr. Richard Smith, who was a big part of organizing the Pear Festival at that time, was sitting next to me at the booth. We'd been chatting for a while, when out of the blue he said he was interested in producing this outdoor Shakespeare he had heard about. I made a good decision that day and I said, ‘Yes,’” Tomlinson said.

“So we started meeting over coffee and talking about making this happen. We decided that a co-production between Lake County Theatre Co. and Mendocino College would provide the best mix of resources to help such a project happen. So that was big moment No. 1, teaming up with Richard, and creating a co-production,” he explained.

Tomlinson said they took the idea to the school administration and to the theater company, and they were both agreeable.

The next issue was a venue. “At one point we dreamed about our future home being at Library Park, just the two of us, and we dismissed it out of hand, feeling it was something we would not know how to accomplish,” Tomlinson said.

However, he said they had begun meetings with Steve Hexenbaugh, interim dean, at the Mendocino College Lake Center. At one of those meetings, Hexenbaug suggested they do the show at Library Park. “And it turns out Steve did know how to get into meetings with the right people and make this happen,” said Tomlinson. “That was the second big moment.”

Tomlinson added, “And now I'd say, we've got big moment No. 3 happening this year. I dream one day of having four weekends of Shakespeare on all sides of the lake, completely free of charge. A big step toward that dream has happened this year, with our first presentation in Clearlake scheduled for the first weekend of August.”

Tomlinson was the Stars of Lake County Arts Award of the Year-Professional for 2016 and Shakespeare at the Lake was the Best Idea of the Year Stars of Lake County 2016 award recipient.

Bring a beach chair and a friend or two to see this free production.

For more information visit http://LCTC.us .