NAKED SHAKESPEARE Series Returns To Wine Bar 11/2 With "Sonnets and Soliloquies"

Acorn Productions, presenters of the free "Naked Shakespeare" series, will be returning to the Wine Bar on Monday, November 2 at 8 p.m. with an all-new installment of "Sonnets and Soliloquies," the company's monthly free performances of some of the Bard's best verse. The company had been displaced over the summer when the City Council refused to grant the Wine Bar on Wharf Street an entertainment license due to the so-called dispersal ordinance which prohibits venues within 100 feet of one another from receiving an entertainment license. After several months of meetings and discussions, the Portland City Council voted 8-1 last night to allow an exemption for "non-amplified entertainment," allowing the Wine Bar to receive an entertainment license with that restriction. "We are extremely grateful to the City Council for working with us on this issue," said Acorn's Producing Director Michael Levine, "It has been a long few months for us, but we are thrilled at the final result, which will allow our unique brand of entertainment to continue in the Old Port."

"Sonnets and Soliloquies" is a one hour free performance of some of the bard's best poetry, presented in a style that is designed to be accessible to all audience members, even those that are not that familiar with his work. The ambience and performance style encourage an intimate relationship between actor and audience that allows the language to take center stage. Actors are cued by contemporary lines written on cue cards read by audience members, allowing for a playful interaction that celebrates the poetry by providing a contemporary context for the text. "Sonnets and Soliloquies" continues as a monthly series on the first Monday of every month through the spring. The line-up will change every month as different actors perform different selections, many of which will be drawn from the company's spring production of As You Like It, which will take place May 13 - 23 at Westbrook's Riverbank Park.

"Naked Shakespeare" is presented by the Acorn Shakespeare Ensemble, a group of 24 local professional actors who meet regularly in training sessions designed to strengthen their ability to perform classical text. The members of the Acorn Shakespeare Ensemble are well-known to local audiences, having performed with most of Southern Maine's professional theater companies, including Portland Stage Company, Good Theater, Mad Horse Theater Company, AIRE Theater, and the Lanyard Theater Company in Bath. Actors performing on November 2 are Keith Anctil, Seth Berner, Maggie Gish, Chris Hoffman, Mike Levine, Patricia Mew, Debby Paley, Joe Quinn, Kerry Rasor, Jeffrey Roberts, April Singley, Rachael Weinstein, and Eric Worthley.

The Acorn Shakespeare Ensemble was founded by Michael Levine and Michael Howard in the fall of 2004 in order to provide an opportunity for local professional actors to forge a long-term working relationship with one another. The company's mission to is to educate its audience about the meaning behind Shakespeare's text by using acting to simply demonstrate the broad range of intricate emotion, theme and language. The company offers a free series of "Naked Shakespeare" performances at venues throughout Greater Portland not typically used as performance spaces for live theater, creating the world of the play in the imagination of the audience by minimizing the use of sets, lights and costumes. The 2009/10 Naked Shakespeare season will include 7 evenings of "Sonnets and Soliloquies," a scene night at SPACE Gallery entitled "Fools for Love" on January 18 and 19, an abridged version of The Tempest at USM in late March, and a full production of As You Like It in May.

Call Acorn Productions at 854-0065 or visit www.nakedshakespeare.org for more information about "Sonnets and Soliloquies" or any other programs offered by Acorn Productions' "Naked Shakespeare" group.

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