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It's time for Shakespeare by the River (or maybe in the theater)

By BARBARA FREDRICKSEN
Published February 10, 2007

Oh, my, has it really been a year since my mom and I huddled in Sims Park, swathed in thick blankets, and watched a wonderful live production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream by actors from Richey Suncoast Theatre?

That was the first Shakespeare by the River festival, and the whole day had been just delightful. A coolish, but not too cool breeze had come off the Cotee River as I chatted with members of the Society of Creative Anachronism, watched some sword fights, ate two helpings of barbecue (isn't gluttony a sort of Elizabethan-era thing?), heard an all-too-brief lecture on Shakespeare and bought a few small things from some visiting vendors, then settled in for the play at 8 p.m.

Richey Suncoast Theatre and the city of New Port Richey launched the event last year, and, thrilled with last year's turnout, they're doing a second edition on Feb. 16, 17 and 18 this year, bigger than before.

And they're taking to heart some lessons they learned a year ago.

For one, they're making contingencies in case of rain or cold weather to move most of the action from Sims Park to indoors at the Richey Suncoast Theatre.

For another, they're starting the outdoor plays at midafternoon, instead of night, in case another heavy, wet and cold dew falls upon the ground as it did last year, driving blanket-sitters to their warm cars.

Last, they're adding activities for kids, a short concert by the Brooksville Baroque Band, a Torchlight Tourney by the SCA members on the first two nights, more talks by Shakespeare scholars, a showing of the BBC production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and a few other things to make Shakespeare a go-and-go-again event.

The heart of the event, of course, will be a play - not one of Shakespeare's own, but a zany takeoff called The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) that presents snippets from the bard's comedies, histories and tragedies at a breakneck pace.

It has played recently at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and at the Tarpon Springs cultural center with a big response.

There will be four presentations, two indoors and two outdoors, with two different casts.

Richey Suncoast's production with Austin Helms, George Cahill IV and Bill D'Addio will be at 8 p.m. Feb. 16 and at 7:30 p.m. Feb. 17, both at the theater.

A version starring professional actors Rick Bronson, Tom Bronson and John Smith will be at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 17 and 4 p.m. Feb. 18 in the outdoor theater in Sims Park (bring a chair or blankets for seating).

I'm planning to go see each cast do the show. After all, it's only 93 minutes long and everyone who has seen it says it goes so fast, you can't catch everything with just one viewing.

By the way, all the events at Shakespeare by the River (except the food and vendor merchandise, of course) are free.

(Note: The Pasco Times will publish a full schedule of events next week.)

Speaking of the Richey Suncoast

The second Ticket to Broadway show produced by Richey Suncoast Theatre and the Pasco Education Foundation to raise money for scholarships for kids going into the performing arts made a whopping $5,000, plus a $1,000 scholarship donated by Jameson Logistics.

The winners of the show's scholarships will be announced later. The winner of the Jameson scholarship is Lauren B. Healey of Land O' Lakes High School.

Since the kids themselves are the performers in the show, every penny raised to scholarships for that year's graduating class.

[Last modified February 10, 2007, 01:04:10]