CINEMA UNDER THE SKY: It's right around the middle of June when many people long to find a film to watch that isn't playing inside four walls and under a roof. That film might be at an old-school drive-in, the kind that you wear your jam-jams to, or it could be projected on a sheet in your backyard. Wherever it is you're longing for some stars above, and cooler nighttime temperatures, and a few breezes to change up your usual movie-viewing experience. It's a most excellent thing, then, that Southern California offers so many get-outside, spread-out-a-blanket cinema nights, nights that can land in parks, on beaches, and even in the occasional cemetery. And sometimes, every so often, an alfresco film event takes place where a lot of other performance happens, performance that covers a glorious gamut (ballet, song, readings, drama, and such). The Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa is just that gamut-runner, and each July it welcomes a few celluloid treats onto its calendar. And that calender will open on...
JULY 11... with a screening of "Grease." You got it, summer-lovin' cineastes: Movie Mondays, that free, decade-along event, is back. There are a quartet of flicks that'll follow the Olivia Newton John-John Travolta classic, including "Selena," "Elf," "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," and "Labyrinth." The Arts Plaza is the location, there shall be food trucks, or you can pack a picnic if you like. You can still search out a beach flick, or hang a sheet screen in your backyard, but heading to a place that treasures the performing tradition for your outdoor movie enjoyment is as satisfying as biting into the perfect piece of perfectly salted popcorn.
