If a trip to Oregon's Shakespeare Festival is not in the cards for you this year, there is no reason to miss out on your annual dose of the Bard. Arts Center Theater is presenting Scrambled Shakespeare, a collection of plays and scenes by and about the immortal Shakespeare on June 17-19 and June 24-26 at Gualala Arts Center.

The first half of the performance takes you to a present-day audition for a production of Shakespeare's Hamlet. There, you'll witness the struggles of a group of actors, each hot for the same role. Then follow the lucky actor cast as Hamlet as he confronts his personal doubts about his acting abilities and gets some ethereal coaching from a very unlikely and very ghostly source. Our first act then concludes with a performance of Tom Stoppard's Fifteen-Minute Hamlet, an extremely shortened (and extremely funny) version using Willie S.'s own words. The second hilarious act takes you back to 1856 with the exploits of Delia Bacon - a descendant of the famous Francis Bacon - who is anxious to prove that William Shakespeare was not the author he seemed to be. First she attends and heckles her way through a performance of several famous Shakespearean battles of wit. Then she spends the night at the tomb of the great man himself and finds much more than she expected.

Phil Atkins as Hamlet, Joel Crockett as Claudius, and Norm Wohlken as John Barrymore

Scrambled Shakespeare runs June 17-19 and 24-26. Friday and Saturday night performances are at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday matinees are at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $12 for all performances except the gala opening, which are $25 and include beverages and hors d'oeuvres starting at 6:30 p.m. and the play at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are available at the Gualala Arts Center and the Dolphin Gallery or by phone at 707-884-1138. The last Arts Center Theater production sold out, so buy your tickets early!