Now that football season is over it’s back to reality television – or politics. None of this is particularly inspirational. We’ve heard the prose before. How about some poetry, plays writ large on the stages of some of the country’s premiere Shakespeare festivals? Here are some ideas to render your life a bit more enlightened:
– Head to Ashland, Oregon for a taste of the internationally-acclaimed Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Through November 4 see Romeo and Juliet. The OSF is remarkable, attracting some 400,000 people per year while presenting an assortment of 780 performances.
– Make tracks south, to Montgomery, Alabama for the lesser-known (but often stellar) Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Founded in 1972, the company is ensconced in a beautiful theater by a lake. Just now ASF is producing a stage adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps.
– So wonderfully woven are the Bard’s words that you really don’t need a full-on stage presentation to revel in them. Sometimes a reading works beautifully. The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey’s third annual Lend Us Your Ears play readings features Henry IV, Part Two July 16 – the perfect way to beat the coming summer heat and sip the fine wine of words what weather the ages.
Story by Jerry Chandler
(Image: arbron)
