In his search for something more mainstream, Mudge seems to have found it in
the turning basin.
Actors will perform on an 8-foot floating stage and make use of the dockside,
while audiences will never be more than 40 feet from the action. Viewers will
be able to bring blankets and sit on the triangle of lawn or sit in one of the
folding chairs that will be set up at dockside. Of course, the actors may have
to fight the noise from the highway above and from the inevitable crowds at
Friday Cheers. But Mudge is hopeful that the group will win some new fans in
passersby.
"I'm certain it will boost our visibility in town," he says.
The festival will still perform 19 shows at Agecroft, with an additional 15
at the turning basin.
Mudge has selected an easily digestible spoof to inaugurate the festival's
new site at the turning basin. "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged"
features three actors performing all 37 of Shakespeare's plays in 90 minutes.
Mudge calls it "nonthreatening" Shakespeare: "It will be welcoming to new audiences
of Shakespeare because of its comic fashion, and it does so in a spirit William
Shakespeare would like."
He adds, "The more I do Shakespeare, the more I realize William Shakespeare
loves the laugh." Carrie Nieman
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