A youth-presented Shakespearean play, an amateur comedy night and an English-style concertina concert highlight this weekend’s events on the North Olympic Peninsula.
• Olympic Peninsula HomeConnection will present Shakespeare’s “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” at 6:30 p.m. Friday and 1:30 p.m. Saturday at San Juan Baptist Church, 1704 Discovery Road, Port Townsend.
Admission is by donation. There also will be a fundraising bake sale before the show and during intermissions.
The production will feature a cast of K-8 students, including Gideon Hales as Proteus, Joaquin Martinez as Valentine and Ayla Leonard-Stephens as Sylvia.
Other cast members will include Satya Athair, Raiven Beil, Emmett Douglas, Hudson Douglas, Nyneve Gervais, Daniel Hales, Solari Just, Talon Lee, Lila Mahan, Thomas Mahan, Belén Martinez, Annabelle Miller and Ariana Stewart.
Fourth-grader Jaber Gunn will play Crab, the only dog cast in any of the 38 Shakespearean plays.
The play is directed by Carla Powell, Franco Bertucci and Rowan Powell with alumnus coach Leif Staley.
Olympic Peninsula HomeConnection, part of the Crescent School District in Joyce, is an alternative learning experience for kindergarten through eighth-grade students in Clallam and Jefferson counties. It has staged a performance of a Shakespearean plan annually since the 2012-13 school year.
• Lara Starcevich will host Amateur Comedy Night at 7 p.m. Friday at Studio Bob, 118½ E. Front St., Port Angeles.
The open mic event will welcome people 21 and older to watch or perform in five-minute slots.
Tickets are available at the door on a pay-what-makes-you-happy basis.
Jesse Ahmann, a cellist with the Port Angeles Symphony Orchestra and a bass player, will provide impromptu jazz interludes during the show.
For more information or to sign up for performance slot, email Starcevich at laras@pencol.edu.
• Squeezebox Rebellion will present a concert at 3 p.m. Sunday at Finnriver Farm and Cidery, 124 Center Road, Chimacum.
The English-style concertina band is modeled after bands that were more common in England, where the English system concertina was patented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in 1836.
There will be a $5 cover charge.
The Olympic Peninsula band has four players, and friends occasionally join in. It is always open to new members.
The band mainly uses two sizes of English concertinas with a total range of 5½ octaves.
The showcase also will include Autumn Child, a mainly Irish and American music band that features an English concertina along with guitar and fiddle; Stefan et al., bringing together players of the closely related Anglo-style concertina; and Home Made Music, featuring Otto and Kristin presenting some violin and concertina duets.
The public is invited to an open jam and warmup for all instrumentalists from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the Tri-Area Community Center, 10 West Valley Road, Chimacum.
• Lisa Taylor will present “Designing for Drought: Waterwise Designs with Native Plants” at 10 a.m. Saturday at Erickson Hall at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds, 4907 Landes St., Port Townsend.
Taylor’s presentation, part of the 2026 Yard and Garden lecture series, will end with a Q&A session.
Master gardener plant clinicians will be on hand to answer gardening questions.
Tickets are $15 per person at http://2026yardandgarden.eventbrite.com or $20 at the door.
Taylor, an educator and consultant, is a contributing author for the “Maritime Northwest Garden Guide” and “Your Farm in the City: An Urban Dweller’s Guide to Growing Food and Raising Animals.”
She also is a master composter, a pioneer in children’s gardening and has been teaching people of all ages to garden organically for 30 years.
Future speakers in the series include:
• Steve Hampton, Feb. 7, “Backyard Sanctuaries: Gardening for Birds and Biodiversity.”
• Jenny Glass, Feb. 14, “Working with Nature: Smarter, Safer Pest Management.”
Ticket sales support Jefferson County Master Gardener programs.
For more information, visit www.jcmgf.org.
• James Lee Murray will perform from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at Taps @ The Guardhouse, 300 Eisenhower Ave., Port Townsend.
No cover charge.
• Sarah Shea with Ted Enderle, Angie Tabor and Linda Dowdell will perform at noon Sunday for Free Jazz Sunday in the Sunset Lounge at Field Arts & Events Hall, 201 W. Front St., Port Angeles.
• Leslie Saxon West will present “Epic Greenland” at 7 tonight at the Port Angeles Senior and Community Center, 328 E. Seventh St., Port Angeles.
Admission is by a $10 donation.
Saxon’s presentation is part of the 2026 Adventure Travel series sponsored by the Peninsula Trails Coalition.
For more information, email info@olympic discoverytrail.org or visit www.olympicdiscoverytrail.org.
• The Port Townsend Urban Sketchers will sketch at 10 a.m. Saturday at The Nest, 1119 Lawrence St., Port Townsend.
After sketching at locations in and around the coffee shop, the group will reconvene inside at noon to share their work and take a photo.
The event is free and open to sketchers of all skill levels.
For more information, visit www.urbansketchers porttownsend.wordpress.com.
• The Clallam County Genealogical Society will present a free beginning genealogy class at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at the society’s research center, 403 E. Eighth St., Port Angeles.
Participants will learn how to begin to build a family tree, including the methodology, available resources and some of the pitfalls to avoid.
For more information or to reserve a seat, call the society at 360-417-5000 or email askus@clallamcogs.org.
