SERIES BRINGS BARD TO THE SILVER SCREEN

For four weekends during this summer’s 1987 Grove Shakespeare Festival, the Gem Theatre in Garden Grove will be doing what it used to do--show movies.

The Gem will be the site of the first film series to be presented in conjunction with ORthe city’s annual classical stage festival, which will be held next door at the Festival Amphitheatre, beginning June 26.

The film series, which opens July 9, will offer “Henry V,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Throne of Blood.”

These will be the first films screened at the 172-seat Gem Theatre since the former movie theater, which was built in the 1920s on Main Street, was renovated and reopened in June, 1979, as the home of a new city-backed theater company.

“This series is being done as strictly an experiment,” said festival organizer Thomas Bradac, producing director of the Grove Theatre Co. “That’s one reason why we’re only offering three movies. If the response is good, we’ll consider offering the series next summer and in expanded form.”

This summer’s three-movie “Shakespeare on Film” series will be shown on a Thursday-Sunday schedule from July 9 to Aug. 2.

The works, to be shown on a rotating basis, are:

--”Throne of Blood,” Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 Japanese version of “Macbeth.” Toshiro Mifune and Isuzu Yamada star as the grandly conniving couple. It opens July 9 at the Gem.

--”Henry V,” Laurence Olivier’s first, and some say best, cinematic translation of Shakespeare. The 1945 British color production stars Olivier as the young warrior king, and features Renee Asherson and Robert Newton. It opens July 10.

--”A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the 1935 Warner Bros. version directed by Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle. One of the first Hollywood efforts at bringing the Bard to the screen, this production boasted an eclectic cast: James Cagney, Joe E. Brown, Olivia de Havilland and Mickey Rooney. It opens July 11.

Call (714) 636-7213 for schedule information. Evening screenings are 8 p.m., except for 7:30 p.m. Sundays. Matinees are 5 p.m. Saturdays and 3:30 p.m. Sundays. Tickets per single film are $5 general admission and $4 for festival subscribers. A series pass for all three films is $13.