Shakespeare in Central Park brings on the Bard
At Kentucky Shakespeare Festival's Shakespeare in Central Park, you can see three plays this summer as as they would have been viewed 500 years ago at the Globe Theatre: outside! But unlike those Elizabethan-times presentations, these plays are free.
Shakespeare in Central Park kicks off with Macbeth, a tale of ambition and betrayal, which runs June 10–14 and June 16–21. Next up is the romantic tragedy of star-crossed lovers, perennial favorite Romeo and Juliet, June 30, July 1–5 and July 7–12. The Globe Players, an advanced theater company of talented high-school students associated with the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, will put on an ambitious full-length production of Hamlet from July 15–19.
Productions are all in the C. Douglas Ramey Amphitheatre in historic Old Louisville's Central Park. The amphitheater seats up to 1,000. Between 10,000 and 15,000 catch these performances each summer in what has become a family tradition. Grandparents, who first caught Shakespeare in Central Park as children decades ago, now bring their own children and grandchildren.
If it rains, the play will be delayed for 15 minutes in hope of better weather. At that point, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival staff will decide whether to scrap or continue the play.
The Kentucky Shakespeare Festival began as a community theater in 1949. The first summer Shakespeare productions came in 1960 — the same year the company was asked to stage a scene from Much Ado About Nothing in Central Park, and Shakespeare in Central Park born.
Both Central Park and the C. Douglas Ramey Amphitheatre are wheelchair accessible. Street parking next to Central Park can be tricky, so it's best to arrive early.
Posted by Ivonne Rovira
