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With the curtains about to rise on season seven of the Great River Shakespeare Festival, the theater company has created more ways than ever before for people to immerse themselves in Shakespeare fever.
Everything about the festival, organizers say, is designed to create access to Shakespeare in a way that is not stuffy with white powdered wigs, but friendly and warm and kind of like a family get-together. With a script.
But make no mistake, this is Shakespeare at its finest with a cast and crew from around the world skilled at the highest level. But it is perhaps that expertise that helps this festival bring Shakespeare to the community in a way that lets people, any people, leave feeling like they understood what the 400-year-old play was about.
To attract new fans and celebrate with old, opening weekend has a full slate of activities, even for those not attending The Comedy of Errors, opening Friday, or Othello, opening Saturday.
A free public concert on the lawn outside the Performing Arts Center on the Winona State University campus kicks things off Friday evening at 6:30 p.m., but the entertainment will not stop until the last GRSF performance August 1.
Saturday, June 26, anyone with a ticket for any show during the season is invited to a reception at the Minnesota Marine Art Museum from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
The celebration continues back on the green outside the Performing Arts Center, where another prelude concert will take place at 6:30 p.m. Saturday evening.
Sunday, GRSF will do things Minnesota-style with Picnic on a Stick, a family-style picnic on the WSU green. The picnic is free for matinee playgoers and $5 for everyone else.
These concerts, as well as receptions, morning festival talks, and Thursday evening chat sessions with the actors, have become monstrously popular events during the Great River Shakespeare Festival.
But there are still plenty of people who haven’t quite dipped their toes into festival waters and perhaps aren’t quite sure where to start.
The festival has an answer: Skeptics Performances.
July 9 and 10, skeptics can purchase a ticket for $5 for each regular priced ticket. For those who aren’t quite sure if Shakespeare is for them, it’s a good opportunity to tag along with some friends and get a peek at what all the excitement is about.
On Tuesdays the festival also offers $10 tickets to all to make sure that cost is not a barrier for anyone wanting to experience a performance at the Great River Shakespeare Festival.
And teenagers have special opportunities with GRSF too, from immersion programs for high schoolers to specially discounted performances for students. Called Chill With Will, July 8, 15, and 22, students can get in for $10, plus get a tour of the theater, refreshments, and the chance to talk with actors after the show.
Tickets for all shows can be purchased on line at www.grsf.org, which has real-time seating charts for performances and an abundance of information about the shows, the company and the concept behind the festival.
With ample free parking around the east side of the Winona State campus, the Performing Arts Center and its surrounding greens are easy to get to and large enough for an army of concert, picnic and playgoers. And with the entertainment lineup in store for the next seven weeks, an army of people is exactly what the Great River Shakespeare Festival is expecting.
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