Summer is the season of Shakespeare all over the Seattle area

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Call it Shakespeare synergy. During the next two months, Seattle is a virtual Bard fest. Eight companies are collectively staging 10 comedies, histories, tragedies and adaptations.

Styles range from a polished, professional "Richard III" at Intiman Playhouse to a bizarre and brash Paper Trail Productions' "Romeo and Juliet" performed on and around the Fremont Troll.

Perhaps the most innovative entry in the Seattle summer Shakespeare stampede is "The Tempest at NewHolly," a Deus X Machina company modern-language adaptation of a romantic drama about refugees marooned on a strange island. In Shakespeare's "The Tempest," the island is somewhere in the Mediterranean. In DXM playwright Andrea Allen's reimagined story, the island is a housing development in South Seattle.

"NewHolly really is an amazing mix of people," Allen says. "Some are literally refugees from places like Eritrea and Ethiopia. You have Muslims, Buddhists and Christians. Some of the houses are Seattle Housing Authority subsidized rentals. The next phase of NewHolly development includes market-rate properties that sell for half a million dollars."

In Shakespeare's tale (itself an adaptation of stories from ancient Rome and 16th- and 7th-century Europe), you have original inhabitants, early immigrants and new arrivals. The various characters jostle for some sort of mutual accommodation. The DXM team found that NewHolly had its own forms of jostling.

"The young people try hard to adjust to American life," Allen says. "Some of the older generation hope to eventually go back to where they came from." Since March 2005, Allen has been exploring the lives of NewHolly residents, finding stories through individual and group interviews.

She also found an ad hoc troupe of volunteer actors. "Out of the cast of 20, 16 are locals who showed up at auditions," Allen says. "The other four are fringe theater veterans."

DXM consists of Annex Theatre alumni. Allen was once the artistic director at Annex. The idea of working with NewHolly people came from former Annex company member Patrick Sexton, who lives in the community. DXM founder Jack Bentz, also an Annex veteran, is directing "The Tempest at NewHolly."

Bentz, a Jesuit priest in charge of liturgies at Seattle University, includes community-building through theater as part of his concept of ministry. "Our rehearsals are out of doors," Bentz notes. "You have people wandering by and watching the actors -- women from Somalia in full burkhas, teenagers in regular American clothes, every imaginable sort of person.

"When the actual performances happen, the audience won't just be a bunch of strangers who happen to like plays. The production will be a real community celebration and achievement."

DXM's production runs July 20-22 in the NewHolly Library courtyard, 3050 32nd Ave. S. Information: www.dxmtheater.org.

The stalwart pioneers of Seattle summer Shakespeare are Wooden O Theatre and GreenStage, both of which specialize is park shows.

Starting Wednesday and running through July 30, Wooden O will perform the bucolic comedy "As You Like It." The bloody revenge tragedy "Hamlet" plays July 7 through Aug. 2 (www.woodeno.org).

"As You Like It" director Carys Kresny says, "As a big sucker for romance, I'm enchanted by the way that love functions as the engine of the play. Almost no one in 'As You Like It' avoids being a perfect fool on the way to finding their loves and knowing themselves."

"Hamlet" director Mary Machala has trimmed her production to two hours, down from a possible four hours. Her actors wear contemporary costumes. Machala says she has peeled away the medieval politics and focused on "modern royalty whose house/family is in disarray or, if you will, rotten."

This year's GreenStage repertoire is the romantic fantasy farce "A Midsummer Night's Dream," July 14 through Aug. 27, and the Wars of the Roses historical tragedy "Henry VI," July 27 through Aug. 27 (www.greenstage.org).

Other outdoor productions include that Paper Trail staging of "Romeo and Juliet" at the troll statue under the Aurora Avenue Bridge at 36th Street North through July 9 (206-303-9080).

Using a real waterfall as a backdrop, the Snoqualmie Falls Forest Theater presents the romantic comedy "Two Gentlemen of Verona" through July 16 (www.foresttheater.org). Freehold Theatre stages the problem comedy/drama "The Merchant of Venice" Monday at Volunteer Park (www.freeholdtheatre.org).

For those who prefer their Shakespeare indoors, Intiman's "Richard III" runs through July 15 at Seattle Center (206-269-900). A Seattle Public Theater production of the historical tragedy "Julius Caesar" (transferred from ancient Rome to corporate America) runs through July 9 at the Bathhouse Theatre (www.seattlepublictheater.org).

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