Shakesperience Productions' Much Ado About Something!

Sunday, July 15
Two performances: 1pm and 3pm
FREE! Outdoor seating on the lawn behind the FH

Two actors mix up monologues, scenes, and each other as they invite the audience to be a part of the fun. Shakesperience Productions’ signature audience interactive piece, it’s a perfect mix of literature, levity, and dramatic cameos -- all played out for you al fresco!

A completely new kind of theater, an innovative mixture of performance, workshop, interaction, realism hand-in-hand with complete “playing” in every sense of the word, this program is the foundation of what is Shakesperience Productions, Inc. Much Ado About Something is a banter between two actors, a lecture via question and answer with the audience, an introduction of Shakespeare, and an invitation to be directed in scenes from the plays, combining humor and clowning with text-based analysis. This small group access to the Shakesperience Approach and the balance of lecture and performance allow for the highest levels of inclusiveness and interactivity.

This production permits the celebration of the spoken language and empowers participants with confidence and public speaking skills. Rather than condescending to the audience, Shakesperience invites it to rise to the level of the language. Seeing Shakespeare performed brings it to life as reading the work cannot. Performing Shakespeare, yourself, adds the crucial dimension to the process. The act of creating text-based movement and character choices through a honed process in a safe environment leads the audience to experience, first-hand, the beauty and excitement of the Shakespearean world, and how utterly present this world remains today.

Like Shakespeare in the Park, the beloved NYC institution founded 50 years ago by Joseph Papp, this production will be played out-of-doors under the canopy of a summer sky, but only in Newburyport can one have the Merrimack River providing a perfect seasonal background. As an added bonus the tall ship HMS Bounty will be docked at the boardwalk. Come and sit upon the lawn behind the Arakelian Theater at the Firehouse Center for the Arts at Market Square and enjoy summer in Newburyport for all it's worth!