BrooklynONE's Shakespeare in the Park Festival to Kick Off this Saturday, 8/3

BrooklynONE will introduce Shakespeare to Bay Ridge in the area's first ever festival of Shakespeare in the Park. The festival caters to audiences of all ages, specifically reaching out to the children of Brooklyn by offering face painting and mask making in addition to other art projects before presenting classic scenes from many of Shakespeare's best-known works. The festival starts at 1pm on Saturday, August 3, in Owl's Head Park (use the 68 street entrance) in Brooklyn.

Anthony Marino is the co-founder of BrooklynONE, a company actively working to bring the arts to Bay Ridge in the form of play readings, musical performances and locally produced films. "There's never been anything like this in Bay Ridge before," says Marino, a Bay Ridge native, "bringing a Shakespeare in the Park festival to the area continues the tradition of BrooklynONE's mission in expanding the New York City arts scene to include southwest Brooklyn." Marino is helped in this endeavor by Dimensions on Stage, a Bay Ridge based performance studio whose founder Lauren McElroy is serves as a choreographer and co-creator of the festival.

Scenes from many of Shakespeare's most famous works will be performed at the festival, including: Twelfth Night, All's Well That Ends Well, Two Gentleman of Verona, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Taming of the Shrew and As You Like it. Two of the scenes will feature period-style dances including some of the youth actors from McElroy's Dimensions on Stage program. To encourage the attendance of the residents of Bay Ridge, a very family oriented neighborhood, the festival includes activities for kids starting at 1pm. The performances begin at 2pm.

For more information on BrooklynONE and the programs they offer, visit: www.brooklynone.org.

For more information on Dimensions on Stage and their programs, visit: www.dimensionsonstage.com.