![]() The show shifts to the arboretum at Connecticut College in New London on July 12, 13 and 20-23. This year Flock Theatre, which is known for inventive stagings and the use of pageantry and puppetry, has already performed “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in Westerly, Rhode Island. New London’s Flock Theatre knows how long summer can be and does two Shakespeare productions in multiple locations. Flock Theatre: ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Henry IV Part 2’ Here’s a guide to outdoor Shakespeare shows (and one non-Shakespeare one) in Connecticut this summer. Several of the Shakespeare companies that exist in Connecticut today, including Capital Classics’ Greater Hartford Shakespeare Festival and New Haven’s Elm Shakespeare Company, started back then. While Stratford’s fortunes were waning, an outdoor Shakespeare movement took hold in the 1980s and ‘90s, fueled by arts grants and a demand for summer cultural activities. There have been many attempts to revive the festival, but now it would also have to be completely rebuilt, as the building (a facsimile of the Globe Theatre of Shakespeare’s London) was destroyed by arsonists in 2019. The theater succumbed to financial difficulties over 30 years ago. From the 1950s into the 1990s, the place to beat was the American Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, founded by John Houseman with casts that might include the likes of Katharine Hepburn or Christopher Plummer. Outdoor Shakespeare has been a staple of summer theatergoing in Connecticut for decades. Modern audiences are content to sit on blankets or lawn chairs and aren’t anywhere near as unruly as the “groundlings” of Shakespeare’s time who crowded the front of the stage like the Elizabethan equivalent of a punk rock mosh pit. William Shakespeare himself worked in an open-air theater, and countless theater companies have followed his lead, staging the bard’s immortal plays in city parks or on the lawns outside their own indoor theaters. Shakespeare’s back, and you don’t even have to go inside to see him. Performance times and more information can be found on the GreenStage website.It’s time to luxuriate in verse, ruffled shirts and the occasional swordfight. GreenStage completes its summer season with final performances this weekend in Seattle. “If you pay attention to the struggles of characters in his plays, you can find parallels to almost any situation, and learn from them.” Though his characters were written more than 400 years ago, they remain relevant today. “We’ve all known that some of Shakespeare’s greatest plays were possibly written during the plague of 1606 when much of London was in lockdown, I don’t think we really appreciated the reality of what that meant until now. The power of Shakespeare is that he writes about the human condition.” Despite four centuries of technical advancement, the nature of people’s actions, beliefs, relationships, and emotions, haven’t changed a bit.”Īudiences seem to be finding even more meaning in the Bard’s words this year. “The amazing thing about Shakespeare is how he shows us how people approach and overcome challenges, and sometimes fail in their attempts. Holmes points out that Shakespeare’s stories have never been more relevant. “We were able to keep going and paying our bills and our staff during the lockdowns by some fortunate timing, some very welcome pandemic relief grants, and some very generous contributions from our supporters. We received relief grants from ArtsFund, King County, the Washington Arts Commission, and City of Seattle – all funded through the federal relief grants.” And government assistance was crucial in keeping the lights on and the actors costumed. ![]() Instead, the pandemic proved to be a test of resourcefulness for an already resourceful theater company. Without federal help, the program would have been tremendously challenged. As Prospero would say, it ‘melted into the air, into thin air.’” “Almost all the COVID protocols we put in place – temperature checks for participants, masks and distancing except when on stage, enforcing distancing of the audience, hand sanitizer stations, etc – all fell away. To be prepared, the company put in place strict covid protocols, which were able to be relaxed as the vaccination rate rose in Seattle. The success of this season was far from assured during the bleakest points last year. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |