Photo by Jill Jones, from Mark Canavera's review in the Huffington Post
Just a quick post about something really fun I did last night, before I run out to another fun thing I'm doing tonight. I'll definitely give this the "New Yorky" label.
Big big thanks to my friend Laurie P. for organizing a lovely evening of free Shakespeare in a park, without waiting in line! This wasn't the Joe Papp Public Theater (the lines, the liiiiiiiines) most of my NYC friends think of when they think of open-air Shakespeare, this was an excellent performance of The Tempest by the 15 year old Classical Theater of Harlem, which has been presenting July runs of plays by Shakespeare at the Richard Rodgers Auditorium in Marcus Garvey Park for the last 3 years. It's free, there were NO lines (I got there and the nice folks at the entrance waved me on in as I approached, saying "Come on in and take a seat", I hardly knew what to do with myself!), and they put on a wonderful show. I'd actually never seen this play before, and I think that when I go back and read it now I'm always going to be picturing this cast performing it.
I don't take advantage of NYC's rich offerings of free summer arts programming as I used to, but I think that an evening of Shakespeare in Marcus Garvey Park would make a great addition to my summer rituals. I'm sorry I missed their Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, sounds like those were also very well done.
Big big thanks to my friend Laurie P. for organizing a lovely evening of free Shakespeare in a park, without waiting in line! This wasn't the Joe Papp Public Theater (the lines, the liiiiiiiines) most of my NYC friends think of when they think of open-air Shakespeare, this was an excellent performance of The Tempest by the 15 year old Classical Theater of Harlem, which has been presenting July runs of plays by Shakespeare at the Richard Rodgers Auditorium in Marcus Garvey Park for the last 3 years. It's free, there were NO lines (I got there and the nice folks at the entrance waved me on in as I approached, saying "Come on in and take a seat", I hardly knew what to do with myself!), and they put on a wonderful show. I'd actually never seen this play before, and I think that when I go back and read it now I'm always going to be picturing this cast performing it.
I don't take advantage of NYC's rich offerings of free summer arts programming as I used to, but I think that an evening of Shakespeare in Marcus Garvey Park would make a great addition to my summer rituals. I'm sorry I missed their Romeo and Juliet and A Midsummer Night's Dream, sounds like those were also very well done.
The Tempest continues through July 26th, so if you are in the NYC area and enjoy classical theater, I'd recommend this highly. Show starts at 8 pm all nights but Friday, when it starts at 8:15, and there's no performance on Monday the 20th. No tickets or reservations required, just go to the ampitheater, walk on in, and enjoy!
Oh, and if you get there early enough, or want to grab a bite after the show, there are some nice restaurants in the area. We adjourned to Amy Ruth's Harlem for chicken and waffles and ribs and mmmmm peach cobbler afterwards, and we were very happy with that decision; if that's not your cuppa (sweet) tea, we passed a couple of other places that looked nice too.
Oh, and if you get there early enough, or want to grab a bite after the show, there are some nice restaurants in the area. We adjourned to Amy Ruth's Harlem for chicken and waffles and ribs and mmmmm peach cobbler afterwards, and we were very happy with that decision; if that's not your cuppa (sweet) tea, we passed a couple of other places that looked nice too.
2 comments:
sounds like a lovely time.
I haven't been to NYC in years!
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