Montford Park Players, an Asheville theatrical tradition, is proud to announce their upcoming presentation of An Evening Celebrating Shakespeare featuring the plays The Dark Lady of the Sonnets, by George Bernard Shaw, and Upstart Crow, by Vincent Dowling, both plays directed by Scott Keel. The show will be presented at Asheville’s Masonic Temple, located at 80 Broadway in Downtown Asheville, March 25th through April 9th. Performances will be on Fridays, Saturdays at 7:30pm and Sundays at 2:30pm and the entire production is absolutely FREE to attend, with a suggested donation of $15.
Montford Park Players, has been presenting Shakespeare and other classical works to the Asheville community since 1973, and has since grown to be one of Western North Carolina’s most beloved and well-known cultural attractions. They last presented these plays in 2014, and are happy to bring it back as part of this season.
Scott Keel, Montford Park Players’ new Artistic Director, and director of Dark Lady and Crow, said about this particular production, “These plays are a celebration of Shakespeare’s triumphs and a mourning of his failures. I hope we can all appreciate both sides of the coin that brought the phenomenal canon that Montford brings to us every year. Enjoy the show, and may this give you more insight into who this man was as you return to the theatre again and again.”
In The Dark Lay of the Sonnets, Shakespeare has a conversation in the middle of the night with Queen Elizabeth, discussing many issues surrounding theatre that are still very relevant today. In Upstart Crow, Shakespeare’s daughter visits the Globe to speak with Richard Burbage to find out more about her father. Both accounts can be described as fan fiction by acclaimed playwrights with a love of The Bard.
Mr. Keel, who also directed recent Montford productions of All’s Well That Ends Well, Coriolanus, and King Lear adds, “We wanted to pay tribute to how Shakespeare was originally performed by using an all-male cast in Elizabethan garb and makeup for Dark Lady, and using “original pronunciation” for Richard Burbage’s recitations of Shakespeare in Upstart Crow.”
The plays star Asheville favorites Trinity Smith, Darren Marshall and Scott Bean, among others. Montford Park Players is proud of this production and happy to ocntinue to bring FREE Shakespeare in the park to its ever-supportive community.
More information regarding the show or advanced seating reservations can be made at montfordparkplayers.org or you can call them at (828) 254-5146.