Bard Fest – the award-winning Shakespeare festival – is partnering with IndyFringe to mark a return of stage productions with an outdoor presentation of William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (Abridged) by Austin Tichenor and Reed Martin.
The comedic production was to open on Friday, July 31, with performances continuing at 7 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 1, and 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 2. The play has been described by The New York Times as “Something wickedly funny this way comes…”
All shows are free to the public. Donations to support the arts will be gratefully accepted. In order to respect CDC guidelines, seating will be limited, and must be reserved by calling 317-292-5687.
Bard Fest will also use Fringe on Wheels to visit locations around the state, trying to find people who need a good laugh and enjoy “loopy theater at its finest,” said IndyFringe CEO Pauline Moffat.
The city’s only Shakespeare festival, Bard Fest was founded in the spirit of cooperation by Hoosier theater companies with a shared love of Shakespeare, Bard Fest strives to deliver a professional-quality and intimate Shakespeare festival experience. Through a partnership with The Carmel Theater Company and IndyFringe, Bard Fest nurtures Indianapolis’s love of Shakespeare by producing unique, epic shows and by providing paying work to local-area actors.
Bard Fest was first conceived by Glenn Dobbs in the spring of 2015. Launching with an admittedly ambitious schedule of eight productions by three different production companies, the festival was “wildly successful.”
Dobbs is now the executive producer and artistic director of Bard Fest. John Clair, Tony Johnson, Nan Macy, Kevin Robertson, and Jonathan Scoble serve as associate producers.
PHOTO ABOVE: The cast of William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (Abridged) see themselves as “superheroes of the pandemic.”
