Announcing 2nd Annual El Barrio's Shakespeare Festival May 31 - Jun 16

The Shakespeare Forum, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating empowered communities through education and performance, announces the 2018 El Barrio's Shakespeare Festival. The three-week festival will present professional and student performances and seeks to help foster the actors and audiences of tomorrow. El Barrio's Shakespeare Festival will kick off on May 31 with the premiere of Lear, directed by The Shakespeare Forum's Executive Director, Sybille Bruun-Moss. The festival will also feature free student performances by young actors from across New York City. The Shakespeare Forum has trained each of the young performers through the organization's various education programs. All performances will be presented at El Barrio's Artspace PS109.

"The Shakespeare Forum and El Barrio's Artspace PS109 provide an artistic and literal home for current and future generations of artists and actors," said Tyler Moss, Artistic Director of The Shakespeare Forum. "This festival is a celebration of voices and how we can give words life and truth."

Following The Shakespeare Forum's acclaimed productions of Henry V in 2016, and Titus in 2017, Lear continues the organization's investigation of how to create immediate and relevant theatre that reflects contemporary topics impacting modern audiences. In this production, the focus will be on age, familial discord and the ever-present spectre of mortality. Lear seeks to challenge concepts of classical theatre and encourage audiences to actively reflect on recognizable patterns in modern life. As with all of The Shakespeare Forum's productions, Lear engages community members through a collaborative exploratory process as well as open rehearsals.

"The project seeks to destigmatize something we all face and feel on a molecular level- familial strife and mortality" remarks Bruun-Moss. "By utilizing Shakespeare's text, we are able to present universal themes and, hopefully, invite audiences into a world they inherently understand."

The Lear cast features Desirée Baxter*, Mélisa Breiner-Sanders*, Whitney Busch*, Denny Desmarais, Frankie DiCiaccio*, Antonio Disla, Alex Fletcher, Adam Goodman, Alenka Kraigher*, Melody Lam, Rami Margron*, Tyler Moss*, and Harry Waller. (*actors appearing courtesy of Actors Equity Association).

Free Student Performances
Through El Barrio's Shakespeare Festival, The Shakespeare Forum is providing students from each of the organization's education programs with the opportunity to share their work with the public. High school students from Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics will present Cymbeline, 6th graders from PS 108 will present A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Shakespeare Forum's after school program will present a variety of scenes and monologues, and participants of The Shakespeare Forum's Youth Forum will present Twelfth Night.

Other Performances and workshops
During El Barrio's Shakespeare Festival, The Shakespeare Forum is excited to welcome other companies to share their work with the East Harlem community. The Funny School of Good Acting, Jarrod Bates, Turn to Flesh Productions, and Hamlet Isn't Dead will all offer performances during the Festival.

The Shakespeare Forum will also host free, drop-in workshops on listening onstage, basic circus tricks, playwriting in verse, rhetoric, relaxation, and Shakespearean improv. Workshops are subject to change.