Shakespeare In Paradise "Speak the Speech"

Shakespeare In Paradise Speak the Speech

Monday 8th October 2012  8:00 PM

Shakespeare In Paradise is pleased to announce the first two productions for its fourth annual Theatre Festival, Opening October 5th and running through October 13th, 2012.


Speak the Speech is a new Bahamian historical work created by our Artistic Director, Philip A. Burrows and compiled by our Festival Director Nicolette Bethel. Research for this work comes mostly from Bethel and her colleagues at the College of The Bahamas like Stephen Aranha, Christopher Curry, Clifford Rahming and Michael Stevenson. Other research assistance was provided by Reva Cartwright-Carroll, Dr. Gail Saunders and Philip A. Burrows. The production consists of speeches and correspondences beginning with the 1492 landfall to Bahamian Independence.

Toni Francis, Nicolette Bethel and Philip A. Burrows will stage this work and it will feature COB students and a few surprise guest speakers.

Speak the Speech will take place at The Bahamas Historical Society on the following dates and times:

Our signature Shakespeare production, simply titled Merchant, is Shakespeare?s classic Merchant of Venice, adapted for a 21st century Bahamian setting. Shylock is a Haitian numbers-runner in this tale of prejudice, greed and justice. The work has been specially imagined for the Bahamian landscape by Gordon Mills, who also directs.

Our signature Bahamian production is An Evening of Two One-Acts by Jeanne Thompson. The renowned author of The Fergusons of Farm Road and numerous plays for the stage returns with a new play, Back of the Moon, set in the New Providence of the 1950s, that heady era leading up to majority rule. A feisty domestic servant accuses her boss, a white English minister of religion, of fathering her child, and attempts to enlist the middle class black community to back her in her cause. The play is a window into a bygone Bahamian era. Father?s Day, Thompson?s classic study of a Bahamian man navigating his relationships with his wife and two sweethearts, rounds out the evening.

Shakespeare In Paradise will also salute our Caribbean neighbours Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago on their 50th anniversary of Independence, and will offer a work from each nation. Other local works are also in development, including an exciting historical docudrama. You can expect to hear a lot more from us as we announce audition dates for all of the shows being directed by Shakespeare In Paradise directors and we will let you know how you can become involved in the festival, either as a performer, a backstage worker, front of house or many of the other areas where volunteers would be needed throughout the festival.

You can find out more information, get in touch with us or keep up to date with what?s going on with the festival online at these various sites:

Shakespeare In Paradise Official Site: http://shakespeareinparadise.org/

YouTube: ShakespeareParadise: http://www.youtube.com/user/ShakespeareParadise

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ShakespeareInParadise

Twitter: shakesparadise: http://twitter.com/shakesparadise

Monthly Calendar