Can head down to the park with your family
all summer long to enjoy a numbf
Shakespeare plays with a parks tour and
the 63rd annual season of the Kentucky
Shakespeare Festival in Central Park.
Joining me now with everything that they
have to offer a preview of the season
is Artistic Director Matt Walla.
63 years Matt Wow, it blows my .
It's crazy, but I feel like it is a treasure
to us to have this in Central P.
And I love the idea of the tours
because it's what hasn't it been like
a great sample in your neighbord
park to kind of know That's whyI
need to go get the full experie?
Absolutely. We started in 2014
taking it to 9 parks and this yr
36 parks and this is the final.
Two weeks of our Shakespeare
in the Parks Hamlet tour.
So we'll we'll be kicking it off tonight,
kicking the week off at
Farnsley Park tonight.
This weekend we're going to
Bernheim Forest for the first t.
So lots of that's going to be remarkable.
Great locations, yes,
in their spirit nest is where we're going.
It's going to be,
it's going to be really cool,
beautiful.
And then later this month, opening the
season with Midsummer Night's D.
That's right.
Two weeks from tomorrow,
we open our 63rd season.
It's going to be a gorgeous
production of Midsummer Night's Dream.
To kick us off, we will have Pu.
The magical fairy will actually
fly this summer in Central Park.
So that will run for three week.
And then we have the classic
Macbeth will run for two weeks.
And Love's Labor's Lost,
a lesser known comedy that we're
sitting in the 1950s with 1950s music.
See,
that's what I love that you all.
You put a twist on everything that it
it's not the Shakespeare that it's like,
oh gosh, how did I read that in high school
and get ready for something so different.
You really do. It's just you make it I
think too really interactive, r?
And there's that kids can enjoye
really try to make it fun and accessible.
And just like the Globe Theatre,
you know, you see these photos,
the first act is in daylight,
so you can see the audience.
We can interact with the audience and
then the magic takes over when ,
the lights come into play and act too.
I mentioned kids, you do have something
there on the grounds that you're
planning so the kids can go plad
enjoy other things too. We sure.
When they need to move, Yes. Oh, that's.
Everything about theater outside, yeah,
they can move and do whatever they want
to. There is a we have a kids globe tent,
so it's a little inflatable
interactive tent with activitie.
They might learn a dance that's
going to be in the show or do se
sort of arts activity and soon.
I I don't know if you've
seen in Central Park,
Olmsted Parks has a beautiful new playground
and we're hoping that's going to be open.
By summer, we have ice cream and
dessert trucks and food trucks every night.
So it's a lot of fun.
And do you see people bring ther
pets on a leash or strollers?
And it's just really inclusive of everyone?
Yeah, probably too.
When you open up your season
to see so many familiar faces,
it probably feels like a family
reunion every summer of people
that treasure coming down.
And you know,
it's just part of their summer.
It is. It is so
many hugs and you know, people,
I might just know their
face from all of the years,
but also the stories, you know?
Grandparents now bringing their
grandchildren and they came when
they were little or people who
met on their first date there.
So we encourage folks to come ot
and create their own Central Pak
Kentucky Shakespeare stories.
We
have great fans. You also have
a great community of actors.
Are there a local,
a lot of local actors this year?
Are you having actors that are
coming in from other states?
It's really important to us
to really use the talented
professional local talent pool .
So all of the actors this
season are locally based.
You might see them on other
folks stages like stage One and
Actors Theater during the year.
We have some great talented actg
interns from U of L who are grad students.
So yeah, you're going to see a wealth
of the talent from the communit,
including preshows every night
you come 7:15 we have a differet
community group performing a preshow.
So you might get to see the tald
folks at Downstream of Louisvilr
Amped or a band or a standup co.
Give them a little love too.
And then you know,
to support them for other event.
And it's really good I think
for their group to get some
attention from a broader audien.
Matt, great to catch up with yo.
It's so great catching up.
Thank you so much.
Be a fantastic season.
So I had to learn a little bit
more and get your tickets to to
learn more about all the events,
the shows that coming up,
the dates just go to
shakespeare.kyshakespeare.com.