A week with the brains and the Bard

As if you weren’t busy enough over the weekend with Michael Martin Murphy’s WestFest and all the Fourth of July festivities. But the Aspen Institute and The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington, D.C., have big things planned for July 5-10, and they’d like you to join them.First Shakespeare. The Shakespeare Theatre Company has a long history of staging some of the finest performances ever of the English playwright’s work. Until now, the company has been content with putting on shows at home in Washington, D.C. This year – for the first time ever – the company is hitting the road, first to Aspen and then to the master scribe’s birthplace Stratford-on-Avon in England. The trip to England comes at the invitation of the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. That’s a “Wow!”Aspenites can see The Shakespeare Theatre’s performance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” over five days between July 6-10. Two of the shows are matinees. Tickets have been selling at a steady clip, but they are still available. Call the Wheeler box office for more information at 920-5770 or log on to http://www.wheeleroperahouse.com.The Aspen Ideas Festival starts on Tuesday. With the help of The Atlantic Monthly, the Aspen Institute is bringing in 100 or so of the nation’s finest minds – Larry Summers, Jane Goodall, Jim Lehrer, to name a few – in every discipline imaginable. They’ll be discussing matters concerning seven or eight topics in a variety of forums. Much of the Ideas Fest is for participants and pass holders, but there are open-to-the-public venues each night. The Wheeler box office is the place to check for ticket availability. To find out about tickets for Jane Goodall’s speech at the Benedict Music Tent on Wednesday evening, call the Music Festival box office at 920-5770.For more information on the Ideas Fest, check out the Aspen Institute’s website at http://www.aspeninstitute.org