TALLAHASSEE, FL (#WTXLDigital) - To be or not to be? That was the question local theater enthusiasts were asking earlier this year when planning the revival of the Southern Shakespeare Festival in Tallahassee.
However, due to generous Kickstarter donations, the festival will be making its first comeback in over a decade.
The Southern Shakespeare Festival started in the 90s, as a performance festival in Kleman Plaza. 2015 will mark the first year its been back in over a decade. However, it will be in a bigger location.
Shakespeare is coming to Cascades Park.
Teaming up with the festival's original members, Laura Johnson and Lanny Thomas, as well as several other Tallahassee thespians, decided to bring the festival back to Tallahassee.
Johnson, the festival's executive director, says "Tallahassee has a thriving performing arts community and growing every year." So, Johnson says that it only makes sense to bring the festival back to the Big Bend.
With community theater thriving in Tallahassee, Johnson says that the festival will offer an experience that you can't find in Tallahassee just yet. The festival will be offering free Shakespeare in the park, renaissance fair, community workshops, and partnerships with area schools.
The festival's artistic director, Lanny Thomas, says that the festival will include performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream, with a 60s twist. "We're going to have a combination of Renaissance and 60s, so we're gonna try to mold those two together."
And while community theaters abound, Southern Shakespeare will be the first year-round professional and educational theater company to offer free-Shakespeare in the park, renaissance fair and festival, community workshops, and partnerships with our Leon County schools, both public and private, making Shakespeare fun, interactive and, most of all, accessible to all.
In order to transform Cascades Park into a festival from the Elizabethan Era, the founders set up a Kickstarter page. They successfully met their $7,500 goal in mid-November and even succeeded it.
The festival will be at Cascades Park from April 17th to 19th.
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