[NEohioPAL] Ohio Shakespeare Festival begins Globe-inspired "Permanent Stage"

[Nancy Cates]

Ohio Shakespeare Festival

507 E. Crain Avenue

Kent, OH 44240

330-673-8761 box office

www.ohioshakespeare.com

 

For Immediate Release

 

Ohio Shakespeare Festival Begins Building Globe Inspired Stage for 

2012 Season: A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Merchant of Venice

 

Ohio Shakespeare Festival is performing for the eleventh summer at beautiful
and historic Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens in Akron.  Since its origin in 2002,
OSF has produced Shakespeare's plays as vital, popular entertainment for
modern audiences.  The mission is simple and simply effective: performing
Shakespeare, Shakespeare's way, with an eye toward authenticity, or what the
academic community more shrewdly terms, Original Practice methods.  This
season, OSF is committing to their Original Practices in a whole new way.

 

Previous years' audiences have seen Original Practices in almost every
aspect of OSF's productions. Over the past 11 years, OSF has trained their
core company members in the acting styles most likely used by Shakespeare's
own players. They use Elizabethan "special effects," relying as little as
possible on modern technology (e.g. using a hand spun wind machine, live
musicians, and trap door escapes).  Like Shakespeare's players, they perform
in an open-air environment, relying heavily on natural lighting.  The only
prominent area that has not yet reflected the Original Practice paradigm is
an ever-changing stage.  Shakespeare wrote his plays with one particular
space in mind.  The traditional design of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre is the
natural arena for all the Bard's plays.  This summer, OSF will design and
build this type of Elizabethan stage.  It will serve as a permanent playing
area intended to enhance the quality and legitimacy of their Original
Practice Shakespeare.  Work will begin this summer on the new playing space,
and the summer productions (A Midsummer Night's Dream & The Merchant of
Venice), as well as all future OSF productions, will perform on the same
stage, with only ornamental alterations.  Once this permanent stage has been
designed and built, OSF can more powerfully and authentically recreate
Shakespeare in its "original" form.

 

While the A Midsummer Night's Dream's set will display the beginnings of our
new stage, the scenic surroundings of Stan Hywet's lagoon will serve as a
natural backdrop for the show's enchanted forest.  The new stage, supported
in part by the Corbin Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and the Akron
Community Foundation, will appear in full glory for The Merchant of Venice.


 

Midsummer previews July 5, and runs July 6-22.  Merchant previews August
2nd, and runs August 3-19.  Performances are Thursday, Friday, Saturday and
Sunday nights at 8pm, with a Greenshow at 7:30pm consisting of songs,
dances, sword fights and parodies.  Stan Hywet's grounds open at 6pm for
picnicking in a wide variety of scenic locations, and concessions are
available, including wine, beer, and boxed dinners.

 

Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens is located at 714 N. Portage Path in Akron.
Tickets are $30 for reserved seating (the first 100 seats closest to the
stage), or $25 for festival (open) seating.  Student tickets are $15, and
further discounts on adult tickets are available for OSF and Stan Hywet
Members.  Reservations may be made any time through OSF's web site at
www.ohioshakespeare.com, or by calling the box office at (330) 673-8761,
open daily (except Mondays) from noon to 5pm.

 

"Each OSF outing is a marvel of clarity and precision, rendering even the
most obtuse digressions by Will suddenly comprehensible. The result is a
kind of euphoric time travel in which one feels transported back 400 years
to the Globe Theatre, relishing all of the Bard's words with immediate glee
just as his audiences did then." (Akron Beacon Journal)

 

-- End --

 

 

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