Community Corner
Sound Shore Shakespeare Festival
The New Rochelle Council on the Arts’ Sound Shore Shakespeare Festival
returns in April to celebrate the 450th anniversary of the birth of
the Bard of Avon. The Sound Shore Shakespeare Festival will run from April 3rd
to May 15th , with a variety of Shakespeare-themed events planned,
including films, concerts, lectures and performances, including the world
premiere of a ballet based on A Midsummer
Night’s Dream.
Among the treats in store is a screening of
three different versions of “The Taming
of the Shrew” at the New Rochelle Public Library on Thursdays in April,
with introductory comments by Prof. Amy Stackhouse, PhD, Assistant Chair of the
English Department at Iona College, and Prof. T. J. Moretti, PhD, Assistant
Professor of English at Iona College and Co-Editor of The Shakespeare Newsletter.
Leghorn notes that this year’s edition of
the Festival will have a special focus on introducing Shakespeare’s work to
young people. “We’re bringing two traveling theater groups to New Rochelle this
year,” she says. “Thanks to the New
Rochelle Fund for Educational Excellence, Knighthorse Theatre will be
conducting workshops at both middle schools and the high school, and NRCA is
bringing the Brown Box Theatre Project to work with youngsters at the Boys and
Girls Club.” Knighthorse Theatre Company
is a non-profit, traveling theatre company dedicated to bringing vibrant,
living art into schools, colleges and universities across the country and
around the world. Knighthorse specializes in creating original adaptations of
Shakespeare with one or two actors --- on a bare stage using simple costumes
and few props -- playing all the parts.
Or, as the company puts it, “Two actors, 38 plays and a lot of words.” For more on the Knighthorse Theater Company visit their website at http://www.knighthorse.org.