VIDEO: Chicago Announces Shakespeare 400, A Year-Long International Festival for 2016

Chicago's Mayor Rahm Emanuel has strong words for anyone who would question his city by the lake as a likely place to host one of the world's biggest William Shakespeare quadricentennials.

"I do not accept the premise of the question, although I know what you are driving at," he says in a Chicago Tribune article. "We have our own version of Elizabethan English here. And we can be difficult to understand. But we are a big city of big shoulders, a city of the spoken word, a city of the humanities and social thought. I think Chicago is the perfect place to celebrate Shakespeare's gift to the world, using all of our collective cultural strength."

And that's exactly what is planned for 2016, as Chicago celebrates the work of William Shakespeare at the 400th anniversary of his passing with a year-long interdisciplinary arts festival, Shakespeare 400.

Spearheaded by Chicago Shakespeare Theater, this yearlong Quadricentennial festival will engage more than 500,000 Chicagoans and visitors through 850 events exploring how Shakespeare's words continue to live in Chicago and throughout the world's great theater, dance, literature, music, cuisine and spectacle.

Highlights from Chicago locals will include Lyric Opera of Chicago's presentation of Charles Gounod's ROMEO AND JULIET, Chicago Symphony Orchestra's Maestro Riccardo Muti culminating his cycle of Verdi's Shakespeare operas with FALSTAFF, a special exhibition at Art Institute of Chicago and Chicago chefs and restaurateurs, including Rick Bayless, Alpana Singh and Ryan McCaskey, will creating culinary "Complete Works" in restaurants across the city.

International artists participating in Shakespeare 400 Chicago will hail from Australia, Belarus, Belgium, China, Germany, India, Mexico, Poland, Russia, South Africa, the United Kingdom and beyond. International highlights include: Shakespeare's Globe Theatre's The MERCHANT OF VENICE starring Jonathan Pryce at Chicago Shakespeare, Shanghai Peking Opera's THE REVENGE OF PRINCE ZI DAN (based on HAMLET) and the Hamburg Ballet's OTHELLO at the Harris Theater for Music and Dance.

Visit shakespeare400chicago.com for complete information.