As we head into one of the busiest theater weekends of the year, lots of news to share:

The Woodward Shakespeare Festival is moving across the street from its current performance space. The company will shift from the mammoth Rotary Amphitheater, which in some ways was far too big, across to the activities area of the park, which is best known as the setting for the "Concerts in the Park" series.

The move is one result of the $1.5 million in renovations the city is completing on the underused amphitheater, including a shade structure, pictured. Though it was completed 14 years ago, the concrete amphitheater proved far too hot in the summer for most productions. (Um, you would have thought that someone involved in the design process -- the architects, say, or the folks who paid for it, or any 8-year-old you stopped at random in the park and showed them the plans -- would have anticipated such a problem, but no.) The Shakespeare folks were one of the few to utilize the space the past few seasons (ah, those theater folks are hardy creatures), but even they had to bring in misting machines to keep the broiling temperatures to manageable levels.

On the jump: More on Woodward Shakes' new space, awards for the Fresno State dance program, a memorial service for beloved theater professor Phillip Walker, a Helen Hayes acting award for GCP alum Heidi Blickenstaff and a roundup of the theater riches available this weekend.

More Shakespeare: Chris Campbell of the Woodward Shakespeare Festival says that the company will construct a temporary space for this summer's season. Audience members will sit in chairs on the grass, which will be much more comfortable than on the amphitheater's concrete. Another bonus: There are big trees on the site that provide shade. Because the stage will be smaller than the massive space in the amphitheater -- which required an enormous set -- the whole experience should be more intimate for the audience.

This summer's arrangement is a prelude to what Campbell hopes will be a permanent structure at the park for years to come. He writes:

This is a great opportunity to develop a permanent home for WSF that is tailored to the needs of outdoor drama. As we envision it, this will also be available for rent to community groups and others that use the parks for drama, dance and other performance events. My current concept is to create a roundish space formed by the stage itself and a wall around the audience. The wall will provide sound insulation and a structure to hang lighting instruments, speakers etc as well as shading the seating in the afternoon. I am thinking that 600 seats is about the right amount for an intimate space where microphones will not be essential but still enough to have a great audience. I think that amount can be accommodated in 15 or 16 curved rows (without getting too wide) so no one is very far from the stage.

Campbell hopes that the new permanent structure will include air-conditioned dressing rooms (so actors dressed in Elizabethan wool, say, don't expire from heat stroke while waiting to go on) and year-round storage facilities. Lots of fund raising ahead.

Other theater notes:

• Student Nicole Askren and Kenneth Balint, an associate professor of theater arts at California State University, Fresno, received special awards for their performance at the Moving Arts Dance Performance Arts Festival in San Francisco. Askren (shown here in a 2006 photo from "Nutcracker") and Balint performed their post-modern duet, “Friction Brings Fatigue,” on April 19. At the end of the evening, their performance was voted the Audience Choice Award and also the Producer’s Award for Choreography.
• A memorial service for Dr. Phillip N. Walker, Professor Emeritus of Theatre Arts at Fresno State, will be held 5 p.m. Sunday, May 4 in the Dennis & Cheryl Woods Theatre (the newly renamed Arena Theatre). Walker (shown here in a 2000 photo) taught for a whopping 40 years, from 1950-1990, and was responsible for exposing both students and the Fresno public to an amazing array of theater. He died March 31 at age 86. (Remembrances may be sent to California State University Foundation Fund, Phillip Walker Acting and Directing Scholarship, 5244 N. Jackson Ave., M/S KC 45, Fresno, CA 93720-8023.) The last time I interviewed Walker, in June 2007, it was for an article I was writing about the challenges of presenting Shakespeare outside. He told me that the one outside Shakespeare play he directed was a production of "The Taming of the Shrew" when Fresno State moved from the old campus to the new. Now that's theater history.
• Heidi Blickenstaff, a Good Company Players alum and star of the soon-to-be Broadway musical "[title of show]," picked up a prestigious Helen Hayes acting award (given for Washington, D.C.-area theater) for her role in "Meet John Doe." She even beat out Broadway star Carolee Carmello, who was also nominated in her cateogry. Blickenstaff writes:

"The night was sparkly and amazing, and I'm still reeling from the experience. I got all dressed up in a floor-length gown and I had to make a speech, (which I barely remember by the way), and I schmoozed with the DC theater- glitteratti. It was an amazing night and I still can't believe it."

Blickenstaff has left the cast of Broadway's "The Little Mermaid" and is in preparations for "[title of show's]" Broadway opening.

• And, finally, don't miss this weekend's full onslaught of theater offerings -- among the most impressive of the year. The cheeky musical "Urinetown," pictured below, is in its opening weekend at Fresno State. Fresno Grand Opera's "Porgy and Bess" plays at the Saroyan with a world-class cast. Fine productions continue of "Glengarry Glen Ross" at the Severance Building theater and "Rebecca" at 2nd Space Theatre. If Elvis is your thing, "All Shook Up" is winding up its run at Roger Rocka's. And at Playhouse Merced, the revue "Some Enchanted Evening" features the songs of Rodgers and Hammerstein.