To Read or Not to Read

Time to rummage through the bookshelves and dust off those old hallowed editions of the Penguin Shakespeare, Riverside Shakespeare or whatever you used in college to complete that English Lit course. The Nashville Shakespeare Festival program, facilitated by artistic director Denice Hicks, offers a chance for citizen-actors to convene one Saturday per month and read aloud one of the Bard's works, the regimen continuing until all of the plays have been covered, which will take about three years. Shakespeare scholar and NSF consulting dramaturge Ann Cook Calhoun did the research for the project, and the plays will be read in the historically discernible order of their creation. There are no special theatrical criteria to participate; all you need is a voice--all accents and dialects welcome!--a copy of the script and a willingness to declaim with other weekend-warrior thespians. Each reading will feature 12 performers, plus there's additional seating for those who want to read along silently, take part in crowd scenes, or simply listen vicariously.
Sat., Oct. 11; Sat., Nov. 1; Sat., Dec. 6, 2008