COA Youth & Family Centers, our hosts at Kadish Park, recently held their annual fundraiser. Part of that event included the video below, created to show the organizations supporters the great work that their donations are doing.

At around the 4:00 mark, you'll find that the presence of Shakespeare in the Park is offered as one of their recent achievments! It goes by quickly -- but, of course, they have a lot of ground to cover in a short time. 

When we conceived of free Shakespeare in the Park, it was always with the expectation that it would bring the entire community together, people from all walks of life, to enjoy a cultural/educational/entertainment experience, regardless of the ability to pay. To play an active part in the revitalization of a neighborhood is icing on the cake!

So, enjoy. And thank YOU, COA for the opportunity to partner with you toward the common good! #WeAreCOA!

This evening, Optimist Theatre is meeting with COA Youth and Family Centers (they manage Kadish Park) and a representative from a local biking association. We're going to talk about infrastructure to Kadish Park and how to make the bike path work for everyone. Ron has done a 3D model of Shakespeare in the Park world. If we can get plans approved now, we have a real shot of making some good upgrades before the 2015 season begins. Speaking of the 2015 season, stay tuned for an announcement...

Sharing some kind words from Mr. Dan Schley: 

THE SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK AUDIENCE ROCKS!!! THE SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARK CAST AND CREW ROLLS!!!!

Rain? Hah! We laugh in the face of rain. It started pouring and the backstage crew started ferrying cast members to their entrances with umbrellas. The audience stayed - soaked to the skin, digging the show, and dedicated to seeing it through.

We ended up calling the show when there was no way you could hear the actors over the rain battering the stage roof.

Thank you. I'm humbled and amazed by your dedication, go-for-it attitude and stamina.

The outstanding stage and house crew for THE WINTER'S TALE set up for opening night. What a beautiful setting in Kadish Park.

MILWAUKEE, WIS. – With great confidence that southeastern Wisconsin will have put the harsh winter of 2013-2014 behind them sufficiently by June to appreciate William Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale,” Optimist Theatre and BMO Harris Bank announce the dates of 2014’s Free Shakespeare in the Park. The romantic comedy will be performed across three weekends: June 13-15, June 19-22 and June 26-29. There will be a media preview on June 12. Shakespeare in the Park will return to COA Youth and Family Centers’ amphitheater in Alice Bertschy Kadish Park for a second year.

The expansion of the season from two weekends to three was made possible, in part, by the organization’s achievement of a $20,000 challenge grant from 2014’s Presenting Sponsor BMO Harris Bank. Though fundraising for the free performances continues, the sponsorship of BMO Harris enables planning for the extended fifth season to proceed.

In addition to announcing the season for Shakespeare in the Park, Optimist Theatre further revealed the casting of “The Winter’s Tale.” The production will be directed by M.L. Cogar, who has been both the Dramaturg and Assistant Director for all four of Shakespeare in the Park’s previous productions.

Cogar is particularly drawn to “The Winter’s Tale” as “a panoramic adventure-romance that showcases some of Shakespeare’s richest language. The story stretches between two fairy tale kingdoms, across the genres of tragedy and comedy…it offers us a jealous king, a wrongly accused queen, a brave princess, a comic shepherd, and a singing thief—in other words, plenty of room for our team of local artists to explore the parallel inventiveness of both performance and production.” The audience, she explains, should “expect clear language and storytelling, evocative movement and music, and technical artistry that celebrates imaginative theater traditions. And puppets.”

The cast for “The Winter’s Tale” includes:

Allie Babich as Perdita
David Bohn in the Ensemble
James Carrington as Dion / Ensemble
Liz Fraglia as Dorcas / Ensemble
David Franz in the Ensemble
Ron Scot Fry as Antigonus
Cassondra Gresl in the Ensemble
Ethan Hall as Florizel
Jeffrey James Ircink as the Shepherd
Ashley Jordan as Mamillius / Ensemble
Mary Kababik as Paulina
Megan Kaminsky as Mopsa / Ensemble
Patrick Lawlor* as Polixenes
Linda Loving in the Ensemble
Brian Miracle as the Clown
Beth Monhollen as Cleomenes
Emmit Morgan as Camilio
Beth Mulkerron* as Hermione / Autolycus
Tom Reed* as Leontes
Genessee Spridco as Emilia
and
Susan Scot Fry as the Bear

*Member of Actor’s Equity Association

The cast includes the return of several actors from prior seasons of Shakespeare in the Park, alongside a number of Optimist Theatre debuts. Tom Reed, Optimist Theatre Associate Artistic Director and Shakespeare in the Park Producer, as well as the production’s Leontes, is “pretty darned excited to collaborate with this cast and crew. Each of our productions arises from the chemistry of the people we pull together. This cast of local professionals is so multi-talented—we have singers, actors, dancers, musicians—I almost can’t wait for the audience to see the results. We’ll be using all those talents to the best of our Optimistic abilities!”

About “The Winter’s Tale”
Generally believed to have been written later in Shakespeare’s career (1610-1611), “The Winter’s Tale” is a romantic comedy of jealousy and suspected infidelity, revenge, and ultimately, of redemption and reunion. It contains one of the most famous stage directions in English literary history: “Exit, pursued by a bear.” Some speculate that, because the Elizabethan theaters were housed in the same sketchy entertainment district as the “bear baiting” pits, it is possible that one or more performances featured a live bear.

Of further interest to historians, the plot, in which a monarch falsely accuses his consort of adultery, appears to parallel the fall of Queen Anne Boleyn, second wife to King Henry VIII, and may have been an allusion to which the Bard’s audience would have been attuned.

About Optimist Theatre
Optimist Theatre is a 501(c)3 non-profit theatre company and an affiliate member of UPAF, the United Performing Arts Fund.  Free Shakespeare in the Park is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board.  In addition to Free Shakespeare in the Park, Optimist Theatre offers interactive educational outreach performances such as “To Be! Shakespeare Here and Now.” The organization’s goals include reaching artists and audiences across the economic, ethnic, and experiential landscape by creating art that is accessible to all people.  They aspire to educate, entertain, and inspire through creative works of artistic integrity and, in doing so, to serve as a “gateway” theatre experience, bringing new audiences to the arts. To learn more, visit OptimistTheatre.org, or contact Managing Director Susan Scot Fry at [email protected] or 262/498-5777 or Artistic Director, Ron Scot Fry at [email protected] or 262/498-9788.

Shakespeare in the Park is also support in part by grants from the Wisconsin Arts Board, the Milwaukee Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin and the National Endowment for the Arts, the United Arts Performing Fund, and the Milwaukee County Arts Fund (CAMPAC).