Shakespeare & Company Announces November Reading Series And Halloween Show

Shakespeare & Company has announce the launch of a November Reading Series held virtually, November 5 - November 22, 2020.

Plus a special Halloween performance held outdoors, hosted by Shakespeare & Company's Education Artists performing the Bard's scenes of ghosts and the supernatural on October 31 at 3pm.

"These are enormously engaging plays by Richard Wesley, Kermit Frazier, and Lydia R. Diamond," said Artistic Director Allyn Burrows. "It's important for us to enrich the dialogue around diversity, equity and inclusion by continuing to bring forward the voices and stories of Black playwrights. We're pleased to be able to offer them in this online format."

The November Reading Series running virtually November 5 - 22 includes three cutting edge plays exploring race and the american dream. Autumn by Drama Desk Award-winning playwright Richard Wesley directed by Regge Life (Topdog/Underdog, God of Carnage), Kernel of Sanity by Kermit Frazier also Directed by Life, and Smart People by Lydia R. Diamond Directed by Aimee K. Michel. Hope Rose Kelly will be Stage Manger for all three productions.

November Reading Series

AUTUMN by Richard Wesley
Directed by Regge Life
November 5-8

Franklyn Longley is a veteran big-city mayor who's in line to become the first black governor of his state - until his godson is tapped by the party to run instead. As a new generation of black politicians comes forward, they must learn there is a price to pay in order to realize their ambitions. This gripping political drama explores the conflicts that arise when aspirations collide across generational, racial, and gender divides.

KERNEL OF SANITY by Kermit Frazier
Directed by Regge Life
November 12-15

In a small Midwestern city in the late 1970s, a young actor, on his way from New York to California, takes a detour for a surprise visit to a veteran actor - an actor he's worked with in only one play but to whom he's found himself inexorably, if nearly unwittingly, attached. In a taunt, tense 90 minutes, three people - a black man, a white man, and a white woman - clash over their contradictory senses of marginalization and betrayal and their contrasting perceptions of illusion and reality.

SMART PEOPLE by Lydia R. Diamond
Directed by Aimee K. Michel
November 19-22

It is the eve of Obama's first election. Four of Harvard University's brightest - a surgeon, an actress, a psychologist, and a neuro-psychiatrist - are all interested in different aspects of the brain, particularly how it responds to race. But like all smart people, they are also searching for love, success, and identity in their own lives. Lydia R. Diamond brings these characters together in this sharp, witty play about social and sexual politics.

Tickets for the November Reading Series

To register online or for more information visit shakespeare.org. Registration is free but the Company encourages a suggested donation of $15 or more to Shakespeare & Company.

Halloween Performance

"We're thrilled to continue our outdoor programming into the fall with this very fun Halloween event," said Burrows.

Something wicked this way comes, with Shakespeare & Company's Education Artists performing Shakespeare's scenes of ghosts and the supernatural for a special Halloween treat. Aimed for students and held outdoors on October 31, 2020 at 3pm, this performance titled "I Have Had a Most Rare Vision" plays for one performance only at the Company's The Wooden O Theatre. The piece was directed by Rory Hammond and Madeleine Rose Maggio with scenes taken from Macbeth, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, and Richard III. Tickets are $15 dollars for adults and $10 for students and must be purchased in advance. The rain date is Sunday, November 1, 2020 at 3:00pm.

"As humans we have been fascinated with Spirits, Ghosts, and Witches since the beginning of time," said Hammond. "In Shakespeare's time, these things were very present and very real. We drew from Macbeth, Hamlet, Richard III, The Tempest, and Julius Caesar. Where we can explore the idea of the supernatural in different forms. For Shakespeare, curses and dreams were taken for reality. In all of his plays, from the curse's of Queen Margaret in Richard III to Calpurnia's dream in Caesar, to the Weird Sisters in Macbeth, all that they speak and see comes true. During this time of year when the veil between our human world and the spirit world is the thinnest, we wanted to explore all that Shakespeare's ethereal worlds have to offer."

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