By Connor Boyd
BLOOMINGTON – The Illinois Shakespeare Festival opens this week and will run through July into August.
The Festival will feature Shakespearean plays such as “Love’s Labour’s Lost” and “Richard II”. Shakespeare Fest Artistic Director Kevin Rich says the experience is something only theater can achieve.
“I think you’re seeing theaters go, ‘Well, film and Tv is huge so we have to do what we do best.’ We have to do what you can’t do on TV,” said Rich. “Reach out and touch our audience, interact with them; puppets and music, painting ourselves blue and bang on trashcans.”
The Festival has taken place in Bloomingon-Normal every summer since 1978. Rich said it has grown so large there is never a shortage of talent.
“We see between 500 and 750 auditions and bring a company anywhere between 12 and 20,” Rich said. “I think we have 12 professional actors and our graduate students round out the company.”
Illinois Shakespeare Fest will also feature acts such as, “Q-Gents” and “Love’s Labour’s Won”, the unofficial sequel to Shakespeare’s masterpiece.
“Every year we do, on the main stage of the outdoor theater, two Shakespreare plays and then the third play is a new work that is in the spirit of Shakespeare and is Shakespearean in some way. An adaptation of a Shakespeare play, simply written in heightened language, imaginative theatricality and universal themes likes Shakespeare’s plays.”
The Festival kicks off with a performance of “As You Like it” on Wednesday at 10 a.m. in the Ewing Cultural Center. For a full schedule of performances and more information visit www.thefestival.org.
