Last chance

August is the month when the summer theater festivals wrap up their runs, and the so-called “regular” theater companies start fielding end-of-summer shows. Lucky for you, SN&R’s your guide to this period of ends and starts all around.

This week, through August 5, will be your last chance to see the Davis Shakespeare Festival’s two shows. The historical drama Mary Stuart plays Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m. The screwball farce On the 20th Century plays Thursday and Saturday at 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m; shakespearedavis.org; (530) 802-0998.

This is also the final weekend for the Fair Oaks Theatre Festival’s outdoor production of Mary Poppins, Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m.; fairoakstheatrefestival.com; (916) 966-3683.

Broadway at Music Circus wraps up with two more shows (staged indoors at Sacramento’s Wells Fargo Pavilion) during August. The ABBA-based jukebox musical Mamma Mia! runs August 7-12, conveniently timed to coincide with the release of the film Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. And Little Shop of Horrors, a musical comedy with a huge man-eating plant, closes out the Music Circus summer season on August 21-26; broadwaysacramento.com; (916) 557-1999.

The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival likewise continues into late August, with outdoor productions of the Shakespeare tragedy Macbeth and the 1960s girl-group jukebox musical Beehive alternating in repertory Tuesdays through Sundays at 7:30 p.m. at Sand Harbor, Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park, through August 26; laketahoeshakespeare.com; (800) 74-SHOWS.

Main Street Theatre Works (in Jackson’s outdoor Kennedy Mine Amphitheatre) stages the Jeff Daniels comedy Escanaba in Da Moonlight (set in a hunting lodge on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula) August 10-September 8; www.mstw.org.

Ballet lovers will want to check out Capital Dance Project’s fourth annual summer show Behind the Barre, which includes dancers from the Sacramento Ballet, at Sacramento’s Crest Theatre on Friday, August 10 and Saturday, August 11 at 7:30 p.m.; capitaldanceproject.org.

And the San Francisco Mime Troupe, famous for their raucous musicals featuring barbed political satire, makes their annual summer tour through this area, with performances on Friday, August 17 at 7:30 p.m. at the Miner’s Foundry in Nevada City; Saturday, August 18 at 7 p.m. in Community Park in Davis; and Sunday August 19 at 5 p.m. in Sacramento’s Southside Park Bandshell, featuring Seeing Red: A Time-Traveling Musical; sfmt.org.

August openings by “regular” theater companies (not summer festivals) include:

Green Valley Theatre: The Black Rider!, a musical fable featuring music composed by Tom Waits, performed at Sacramento’s Westminster Presbyterian Church. August 3-25; greenvalleytheatre.com.

Woodland Opera House: Shrek—The Musical, based on the animated film. August 3-26; woodlandoperahouse.org.

B Street Theatre: We’re Gonna Be OK, about two families building a shared bomb shelter during the Cold War), August 7-September 9; bstreettheatre.org.

Big Idea Theatre: Bootycandy, a kaleidoscope of satirical sketches about growing up gay and black. August 10-September 8; bigideatheatre.org.

Capital Stage: The Wolves, about nine teammates on a girls’ indoor soccer team. August 29-September 30; capstage.org.

Harris Center at Folsom Lake College hosts a touring production of The Greatest Love of All, a jukebox musical/Whitney Houston tribute. September 4-5; harriscenter.net.