The New Year. It's a time for resolutions and reflections; a time to ask yourself, "To be, or not to be?" This year, The Bard descends on the minds and stages of D.C. as the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts sponsors "Shakespeare in Washington."
The program, a celebration of the work of one of the most enduring authors in the English language, began on Jan. 6 with a performance of "Twelfth Night" at the Kennedy Center Opera Hall and will continue through June. Currently running are performances of "The Tempest" at the Keegan Theatre, "King Lear" at the Folger Theatre, "Macbeth" at the Synetic Theatre and "Richard III" at the Shakespeare Theatre.
Over the next five months, over 100 performances lauding the well-known wordsmith will be sponsored by over 60 arts organizations. The events include ballet, theater, concerts, opera and children's events, as well as lectures and workshops, all of which will allow the District to delve deeper into the works, life and times of the renowned writer.
Michael M. Kaiser, president of the Kennedy Center, envisioned the groundbreaking festival, and Michael Kahn, artistic director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company, is curating it.
American University, too, is getting in the spirit of things, hosting a number of Shakespearean events between now and the end of the spring semester. The first of these, "Hamlet," opens Feb. 7 and runs concurrently with "I Hate Hamlet," which opens Feb. 13. Another production rooted in portrayals of the less understood female characters of "Hamlet," "Elsewhere in Elsinore," opens March 27.
The AU Chamber Singers also partakes in the commemoration of the Swan of Avon through a concert titled "Shakespeare in Song: Choral Setting of the Bard," which the Katzen Arts Center hosts April 14 and 15.
More information about events in conjunction with the festival and as the life of Shakespeare is available at the festival's official Web site: http://www.washington.org/shakespeare.
