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Thursday, July 31, 2014

FREE TRAVELING SHAKESPEARE @ VARIOUS DATES & PARK VENUES AROUND NORTH JERSEY

HUDSON SHAKESPEARE COMPANY PRESENTS

per01PERICLES
By William Shakespeare (and George Wilkens)
Directed by Noelle Fair

A wandering king looking for love and family, a jousting tournament for a princess’ hand, Greek dances, bold assassins, goofy pirates, and a visit to a down on its luck brothel with a dash of divine intervention punctuate Hudson Shakespeare Company’s production of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, by William Shakespeare and George Wilkens. [left: King Pericles of Tyre (Lawrence James) goes on a road trip through far flung Mediterranean locales to reunite with his wife Thaisa (Lisa LaGrande, left) and Marina (Morgan Patton)]

Shakespeare’s great adventure story is about the King of Tyre who travels to exotic lands in search of a bride and the unexpected turns of fate which steers his life in remarkable ways. “Pericles” is full of exotic locales and provides a visual feast for the audience as we sail from coast to coast meeting an eclectic cast of characters. Pericles is full of murder plots, jousting knights, belly dancing, magic, love, loss, hope – and – most of all – PIRATES!

The final installment in their 23rd season of traveling Shakespeare in the parks program will perform at:

WHEN: Thursday, August 7th, @7 PM
WHERE: Hamilton Park, Jersey City, NJ, 8th Street & Jersey Avenue
(Rain location under the park's gazebo)

WHEN: Friday, August 8th @ 7 PM
WHERE: Van Vorst Park, Jersey City, NJ, Montgomery Street & Jersey Avenue(Rain location under the park's gazebo)

WHEN: Saturday, August 9th @ 5 PM
WHERE: Long Pond State Park, West Milford, NJ, (Rain location - Long Pond Iron Works Visitors Center)

WHEN: Monday, August 11th @ 7 PM
WHERE: Frank Sinatra Park in Hoboken, NJ, 410 Frank Sinatra Drive (No rain location)

WHEN: Tuesday, August 12th @ 7:30 PM
WHERE: Monument Park, Fort Lee, NJ (No rain location), 1588 Palisade Avenue

WHEN: Wednesday, August 13th @ 7:30 PM
WHERE: Staib Park, Hackensack, NJ, 174 Davis Avenue (Rain location Hackensack Cultural Arts Center, 39 Broadway, Hackensack, NJ)

WHEN: Thursday, August 14th @ 7:30 PM
WHERE:
Kenilworth Public Library, 548 Boulevard, Kenilworth, NJ

WHEN: Saturday, August 16th @ 7 PM
WHERE: Historic Jersey City and Harismus Cemetery, Jersey City, NJ, 435 Newark Avenue (Rain location - Tent on site)

WHEN: Monday, August 18th @ 7 PM
WHERE: Frank Sinatra Park, Hoboken, NJ (No Rain Location), 410 Frank Sinatra Drive

WHEN: Tuesday, August 19th @ 7:30 PM
WHERE:
Monument Park, Fort Lee, NJ (No Rain Location), 1588 Palisade Avenue

WHEN: Wednesday, August 20th @ 7:30 PM
WHERE: Staib Park, Hackensack, NJ, 174 Davis Avenue (Rain location Hackensack Cultural Arts Center, 39 Broadway)

WHEN: Saturday, August 23rd @ 2 PM
WHERE:
Stratford Public Library, Stratford, CT, 2203 Main Street (Rain location Stratford Public Library Lovell Room)

ADMISSION: The play is free to the public and family friendly. Note, the show at Jersey City Cemetery has a suggested $10 donation for cemetery upkeep. Patrons are encouraged to bring lawn chairs and blankets as seating is limited in most venues and coolers to enjoy the festival atmosphere. For more information, visit hudsonshakespeare.homestead.com  or call 973.449.7443.

According to director, Noelle Fair, “We’re using music and physical storytelling to help the audience along the way. We create shipwrecks and other magical feats by using simple elements like wooden dowels, pretty umbrellas, blue scraps of fabric and variety of international music. I’m hoping to deepen certain character moments, elaborate on other points within the story, and to also display the depth of these events and show how integral they are to the pay off at the end.”

About the play:
Written in 1607-8, Pericles, the Prince of Tyre, marked a departure for Shakespeare. After several years of writing the great tragedies like Macbeth and King Lear, he dabbled in a new style of mixing comedy and tragedy together, usually with a mix of divine intervention and a journey that would dominate the rest of his writing career.

The new style has come to be known as his “Romances,” of which The Tempest is a part.

Pericles holds two distinctions that set it apart from other Shakespeare plays. First it was not originally published in the collection of his works known as the First Folio. For years it was a disputed work but was finally accepted into his cannon of accepted work. Secondly, it was written in collaboration with another writer named George Wilkens, who moonlighted as a brothel owner. This fact, obviously, adds a level of authenticity to the brothel scenes late in the play. Published in 1609 in a cheap volume known as a “quarto”, the text was cobbled together from recollections of actors who had appeared in productions, leading to a difficult text to work from. This is perhaps one of the reasons it was left out of the First Folio.