Last summer, while waiting out a downpour in the Franklin Mills Mall, actors Maria Möller and Marla Burkholder started talking about what they missed in Philly's summer theater scene.

A year later, the result of that conversation is four nights of free theater from the first truly Philadelphian Shakespeare in the Park company, founded by Burkholder, Möller, director Tom Reing and managing director Whitney Estrin. (Media's Commonwealth Classic Theater Company put on Much Ado About Nothing this year, but the parks were all in Chestnut Hill or counties west of the city.) Today through Sunday, "The Bowl" at the park's south end near 43rd Street and Baltimore Avenue will be transformed into Twelfth Night's Illyria.

Night IN Day: Maria Möller as Olivia and Bradley K. Wrenn as Malvolio in Twelfth Night. Photo By: jacques-jean m. tiziou

And Illyria will also become West Philly — a twist rather fitting for Shakespeare's comedy, which features lots of disguises and cross-dressing and people getting mixed up and confused in matters of love. Two characters meet up in a disembodied Green Line Cafe. The cast wears modern clothing meant to represent rich and poor, scrappy and artsy West Philly, from preppy Penn professors to disheveled hippies. ("Very obnoxious" is how costume designer Regina Rizzo describes the mismatched clothes of one of the characters.) "We're looking at Illyria as a forest in an urban setting, not the 'urban jungle' but the urban forest ... I think we are relatively true to Shakespeare, and we are relatively true to our world of Illyria which is Philadelphia," says Reing. "Hopefully people will be able to recognize by outfit people they would see in their neighborhood."

Plus, Sir Toby, the play's carouser and general troublemaker, will be boozing it up with a 40 oz. Luckily, capture-the-flag games played by children with foam swords are more frequently spied in the 9-acre park than ale-addled hobos. It's home to the twice-yearly Clark Park Music and Arts Festival and the Spruce Hill Community Association's May Fair. The Philadelphia Orchestra played there in July of 2001. "We wanted a pleasant place where there's lots of trees and greenery, lots of community," says Möller, who will play Olivia. "It has such a different feel to it, that this is rooted in the neighborhood. It could never work in Rittenhouse Square, in places that don't have a community," adds Estrin. "We wanted to become another part of the park."

The set is simple: poles in an asymmetrical V-shape with banners hanging down. The backdrop? A cluster of trees, a hill, aging Victorian houses. But next year's production — their goal is to produce at least one play next summer — might well be staged in a different part of the park. "The idea is to try to use the park in imaginative ways," says Möller.

Burkholder, also the play's Viola, got a call from a friend asking if they could use some kiddie soldiers in the production. The caller's son is one of the kids with the foam swords. "I'm going to have to tell her it's Twelfth Night, but it was kind of awesome," says Burkholder.

Planning an outdoor production presents its own challenges, of course. Someone directing at the Walnut, for instance, doesn't have to leaf through the Farmer's Almanac to find out when the sun sets. About rehearsing in the park, Reing says, "There'll also be people who'll walk in and we'll be in a tender moment and they'll say, 'Hey what are you doing?' and wander into our stage. But I like that. It's variable. That's what makes live theater live ... and I guarantee a dog will run through it."

Another challenge: All four founders are still involved in other projects, essentially "putting together a full-scale production in our free time." Estrin is a fundraiser for a regional performing arts center, Möller was working on a solo piece when she started work on the play, and Reing, who has directed for Brat Productions, InterAct Theatre and Inis Nua Theatre (which he founded), always seems to have a hand in just about every theater project in town. The cast has 11 members, large for an inaugural production (especially a free one), including Michael Krek as Orsino and Brad Wrenn as Malvolio.

Since the company hasn't received its nonprofit status yet, it had to rely on the contributions of friends and family. They say the response has been promising, in terms of both money and involvement. "We're excited," says Reing. "I'm proud of the work."

Now let's just hope that the refrain of Feste the clown's song — "for the rain, it raineth every day" — won't turn out, Macbeth -style, to be true.

(r_frankford@citypaper.net)