This Labor Day weekend there are so many events from which to choose in the greater Lake Placid region—from the all-day music of Hobofest in Saranac Lake, past Whiteface Mountain and on to storytelling in Keene Valley, to the outdoor Shakespeare production on the shores of Lake Champlain in Westport.

It is these shores that beckon to me again and I find myself back at Ballard Park for another comedic production of William Shakespeare. This time it is professional adult actors from American Studio Theater and they are serving up a hilarious helping of the Bard’s “The Comedy of Errors” set in the town of Ephesus, New Jersey.

Folks gather cheerfully on the Ballard Park lawn catching up with one another and sharing end-of-summer stories. It is a beautiful, sunny afternoon and a wonderful spot to see a performance and enjoy the outdoors as well.

The audience is engaged right from the start as the Duke of Ephesus, played by John Lincoln, wanders into the middle of the crowd with the preliminary stage-setting speech. The plot unfolds with news of a shipwreck and a father separated from his child several years before, and identity confusion centering around two sets of master/servant twins which, in turn, leads to some very funny marital difficulties.

As a former Jersey girl myself, I smile through the performance as the character’s flow through Shakespeare’s English with accents reminiscent of Jersey and Union cities. It is a superb choice of theme for this show and expertly enacted.

I can only imagine that William Shakespeare himself would have enjoyed how the director and cast work the plot into the NJ-theme in a rough-and-tumble manner that enables the audience to fully experience the fun of the show and grasp the language.

I had seen a production of “The Comedy of Errors” years ago at Lincoln Center featuring The Flying Karamazov Brothers and Avner the Eccentric. I didn’t think I would ever see another production of this piece that would come near to the comic proportions of that clowning extravaganza but in its own simple way this production does just that. And the audience is eating up every word.

This is an annual event produced by Westport’s own Colin Wells and performed by The American Studio Theater which was started by a group of graduate students of Carnegie Mellon University and the Moscow Art Theatre School in Russia. They have been producing theater since 1998. Carrie Treadwell is a founding member and one of the actors. She has been performing in Westport since she was a child apprentice at The Depot Theatre and now lives in Los Angeles. Thanks to her efforts and generosity, The American Studio Theater has been reuniting each Labor Day weekend since 2001 and treating North Country audiences to a variety of themed Shakespeare plays in a stunning summer setting.

Kathleen Recchia has been enjoying the arts in the Adirondacks for about 20 years--both as observer and participant (acting, directing, and producing). She also enjoys cross-country skiing, swimming, juggling, and hosting visitors to the area at her bed & breakfast in Jay.