Shakespeare in Harvard Square This Weekend

The Harvard Square Business Association Presents Shakespeare in the Square today through Sunday, Aug. 3. Actors from the Shakespeare Project, American Repertory Theatre, and Revels bring exceptional, out of the box, profoundly original Outdoor Elizabethan Theatre to Harvard Square!

FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS:
American Repertory Theatre Performs Shakespeare Slams!
Shakespeare Slams is a modern-day, plugged-in Shakespearian mash-up featuring 18 performers from the American Repertory Theatre's A.R.T. Institute for Advanced Theatre Training in a multidisciplinary, electric, energetic approach to the Bard's verse. Marrying Shakespeare with a wide range of contemporary music, movement, and culture, Shakespeare Slams seeks to bring the lives of Shakespeare's characters to a diverse 21st century audience.
When: Friday, August 1st 6 pm, Saturday, August 2nd 4:30 pm, Sunday, August 3rd at 7:45 pm.
WHERE: Winthrop Park (corner of JFK and Mount Auburn Street).
PRICE: Free!

Actors' Shakespeare Project Presents Love's Labour's Lost:
Actors' Shakespeare Project will present an encore presentation of their highly successful interpretation of Love's Labour's Lost in conjunction with the Harvard Square Business Associations' Shakespeare in the Square. Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost is a sweet and hilarious dance of courtship. Four young lords swear an oath to give up the company of women for three years and devote themselves to study. Soon after, the Princess of France arrives with her three friends and the four lords are instantly smitten. The women decide to torment the men, and boy, are they easy marks! In ASP's rendition of this classic comedy, six actors play sixteen roles-dancing back and forth between male and female, pursuer and pursued!
WHEN: Friday August 1st at 7:15pm, Saturday 2nd at 7:30pm and Sunday 3rd at 3:00 pm
WHERE: Winthrop Park (corner of JFK and Mount Auburn Street).
PRICE: Free!

REVELS REPRESENTS at SHAKESPEARE IN THE SQUARE
The area immediately around Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was filled with musicians, jugglers, dancers and other disreputable street performers. Revels is proud to represent the earthy side of Shakespeare in the Square, and under the leadership of the disgruntled former Shakespeare employee and Morris dancer, Will Kemp, will provide entertainment for the groundlings. Expect lusty music from Tom Zajac and friends, fine singing from Tapestry with Doug Freundlich, instrumental fireworks from Renaissonics, as well as Morris and Sword dancing and expert heckling of the actors.

Shakespeare in the Square Event Schedule

Friday, 8/1/08
5:00pm - 7:30pm: Commonwealth Morris Men and Orion Sword Dancers perform around Harvard Square.
6:00pm - 6:45pm Shakespeare SLAMS - American Repertory Theatre's A.R.T. Institute.
7:15pm - 9:45pm Loves Labour's Lost - Actor's Shakespeare Project.

Saturday, 8/2/08
2:45pm - 4:15pm Renaissonics Performance.
4:30pm - 5:15pm Shakespeare SLAMS - American Repertory Theatre's A.R.T. Institute
7:30pm - 10:00am Loves Labour's Lost - Actor's Shakespeare Project

Sunday, 8/3/08
1:30pm - 3:30pm Commonwealth Morris Men around Harvard Square
3:00pm - 5:30pm Loves Labour's Lost - Actor's Shakespeare Project
5:00pm - 7:00pm Orion Sword Dancers around Harvard Square
6:00 pm - 7:30 pm Tapestry and Tom Zajack Trio performs
7:45pm - 8:30pm Shakespeare SLAMS - American Repertory Theatre's A.R.T. Institute

Shakespeare in the Square Restaurant and Shopping Events from Aug 1-3, please see www.harvardsquare.com for special menus and offers.

About our Distinguished Local Performing Companies:
The AMERICAN REPERTORY THEATRE (A.R.T.), one of the country's most celebrated resident theatres and the winner of numerous awards, including the Tony Award and the Pulitzer Prize, was recently named the third best theatre in the country by Time magazine. Over its twenty-eight-year history the A.R.T. has welcomed Major American and international theatre artists whose singular visions generate and define the theatre' s work, presenting a varied repertoire that includes new plays, progressive productions of classical texts, and collaborations between artists from many disciplines. The Company has performed throughout the country, and worldwide in twenty-one cities in sixteen countries on four continents. The A.R.T. recently inaugurated its second stage at Zero Arrow Theatre, also in Harvard Square.

The A.R.T. INSITITUE FOR ADVANCED THEATRE TRAINING was established in 1987 by the A.R.T. as a training ground for the professional American theatre. In 1998, the Institute began an exclusive collaboration with the Moscow Art Theatre (MXAT) School. The union of the two schools has created an historic program that provides unparalleled opportunities for training and growth. Upon graduation, students receive a Certificate of Achievement from the A.R.T. at Harvard University and a Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree from the MXAT School. Institute students have toured their productions throughout Europe, performing in Russia, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland.

ACTOR'S SHAKESPEARE PROJECT: The Actors' Shakespeare Project was founded in 2004 by Benjamin Evett and actor-colleagues with the intention of creating a resident acting company in Boston that would produce Shakespeare in intimate, stripped-down productions that celebrate the relationships between actors, audience and text. Since then ASP has produced 13 plays in venues all over Boston and Cambridge to critical acclaim and the company's productions have been honored with three Elliot Norton awards. In 2006, Ed Siegel of the Boston Globe wrote, "This is Shakespeare the way it's supposed to be performed. The troupe plays to the crowd hilariously, speaks Elizabethan verse beautifully, and posits a smart interpretation of the play. Actors' Shakesp eare Project has to be listed as a local treasure." Jeremy McCarter of New York Magazine called ASP's King Lear "A triumph of classical acting" and in spring 2008, The Wall Street Journal's Terry Teachout called ASP "one of America's finest Shakespeare troupes."
For More information: www.actorsshakespeareproject.org or 617-547-1982
*Member, Actors' Equity Association

REVELS: Now, in its 38th year of performances, Revels is a non-profit performing arts company producing Music Theater, recordings and educational materials.
At the heart of each Revels production are the singers, actors, dancers, and storytellers who preserve the arts and traditions of their own cultures. Through its respect for the customs of many cultures, Revels has created its own traditions. Widely known for the annual Christmas Revels, our organization celebrates the cycles of life and the seasons through the arts. Revels' productions of Spring Sing, RiverSing, and SummersDay Revels bring together a community of professional actors, musicians, designers, and directors, along with a volunteer chorus of children and adults. Celebration is at the core of Revels and audience participation is an organic consequence of that impulse.