Shakespeare’s tragic tale of young love which has so often been performed in so many different formats, time periods and places will be presented by Valley Shakespeare as an adapted, script-in-hand reading, using only seven actors, minimal staging and will last approximately 90 minutes.
The performance is being presented free of charge, with a suggested donation of $10.
The season continues on March 12 at 7 p.m. with the third offering in VSF’s Shakespeare in the Bar series, “Hamlet: The Bad Quarto.”
This version of the “melancholy Dane” is widely accepted as being the first draft of the Bard’s tragedy and will be presented in a brisk 90 minutes as adapted by Valley Shakespeare Festival’s executive and artistic director, Tom Simonetti.
As in the past, this script-in-hand adaptation will be performed in the intimate upper level bar area of Porky’s Café at 50 Center St. in Shelton. Tickets for this event will be offered at $10 per person in advance, $15 per person at the door.
Valley Shakespeare Festival is proud and excited to be piloting its Education Initiative Program this year to the fourth graders of the Shelton School District during the month of May.
It will be conducting workshops on Shakespeare’s works and presenting performances of “As You Like It” to students and faculty during school hours in a format consistent with common core standards.
It is the great hope of Valley Shakespeare Festival that the program will be received with great success and will be expanded to all grades and schools in the Valley in the very near future.
The apex of Valley Shakespeare Festival’s season is always its grand summer production. This year the company is proud to be expanding its usual three free performances in Shelton’s Veterans Memorial Park to four performances, to be held on Thursday through Sunday, July 9 – 12 at 8 p.m.
The production to be presented is “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” a perennial favorite for Shakespeare summer outdoor theater. Puck and company will have audience members alternately laughing and weeping as they romp through the forest under the moonlight in this funny and poignant comedy.
Valley Shakespeare Festival will also be adding another Shakespeare in the Bar adaption in October and will reprise its annual scripted reading of “A Christmas Carol” in December.
Information, reservations and tickets for all of Valley Shakespeare Festival’s events can be accessed on its website www.vsfestival.org or by calling 203 – 513-9446. And make sure to follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
Valley Shakespeare Festival is a non-profit theater company, fiscally sponsored by Fractured Atlas, dedicated to providing free theater to the communities of the Lower Naugatuck Valley.
