Avondale Estates launches free, family-friendly outdoor Shakespeare series
Atlanta Shakespeare Company and the city of Avondale Estates have teamed up to launch “A Shakespeare Happening,” a new fall series of three outdoor Shakespeare events to be held on Avondale Estates’ Town Green.
Each of the three events — Saturday, Oct. 11 and Nov. 13 — will begin at 2 p.m. with a playful and interactive family-friendly show, followed by live performances by musicians in the Atlanta Shakespeare Company and a 4 p.m. staging of excerpts from the company’s adult Shakespearean plays.
On Saturday, the series will kick off with “Tempest Jr.,” a kid-friendly, 45-minute version of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”
“It’s a great play for kids. Its main character is a wizard,” said Kati Grace Brown, associate director of education sales for the Atlanta Shakespeare Company. “It’s got puppets. It’s got live sound effects. … It’s a really engaging way for us to teach young audiences that Shakespeare isn’t scary or stuffy. They can understand it.”
Following “Tempest Jr.” will be an adult staging of excerpts from “Macbeth,” Shakespeare’s tragedy about a brave general who receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that he will become king of Scotland.
The excerpts will give audiences a taste of the play, which Atlanta Shakespeare Company will also stage at midtown’s Shakespeare Tavern throughout October.
“Bring a blanket, bring a picnic basket and spend the afternoon with us,” Grace said.
November’s family-friendly show is called “Shakespeare Shorts.” The interactive show will invite one unsuspecting audience member of any age to perform the role of Romeo.
It’s a quick-fire, 25-minute comedy rendition, Grace said. It will be followed by music and a sneak-peak performance of “Hamlet.”
December starts with a “Playshop in Performance,” a workshop teaching the audience to stage Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing.”
Music and an adult performance titled “Shakespeare out of a Hat” follows. The performance will be the first time the show’s format, popular at midtown’s Shakespeare Tavern, has been performed off-site.
The format is part improv, part Shakespeare. Actors will know which play they are staging — in December “Much Ado About Nothing” — but not what role they will play. Actors will draw their roles from a hat at the start of the play.
Nicole Sage, a longtime DeKalb County resident and founder of a public relations consulting firm called Bard x Sage PR, spearheaded the creation of “A Shakespeare Happening.”
“Watching Shakespeare performances with my mother is a memory I will cherish forever,” Sage said about her motivation in a press release. “Whether it’s your first Shakespeare play or your 50th, this is a space where families and children can experience the magic of Shakespeare together.”
About a year ago, Sage pitched her idea to the Atlanta Shakespeare Company, DeKalb County Super District 6 Commissioner Ted Terry and the city of Avondale Estates, which all collaborated to bring it to life.
The city of Avondale Estates is a fitting environment for the outdoor Shakespeare event; its charming European design, with its Tudor revival architecture, was inspired by a trip city founder George Francis Willis took with his, wife Lottie, to Stratford-upon-Avon, an English medieval market town known as the 16th-century birthplace of Shakespeare.
“It’s a fun nod to our Stratford-upon-Avon roots,” City Manager said Patrick Bryant in a press release. “It’s a unique cultural experience not offered anywhere else in metro Atlanta.”
Bringing Atlanta Shakespeare Company to the Town Green was also an opportunity to increase arts accessibility, Terry said.
“(The series) is about more than theater — it’s about building community and ensuring that art and culture are accessible to everyone, regardless of ZIP code or income,” Terry said in a press release. “I’m proud to support initiatives like this that uplift our shared spaces, celebrate creativity and offer meaningful enrichment for families across DeKalb.”
If you go
“A Shakespeare Happening.” 2-5 p.m. Saturday and Oct. 11; and 2-5:30 p.m. on Nov. 15. Town Green. 64 N. Avondale Road, Avondale Estates. avondaleestates.org. Free.
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