The Original Practice Shakespeare Festival (OPS) will be coming to Cathedral Park in July. The OPS’s skilled, flexible actors will perform songs, dances and sketches throughout the event using the original practice techniques of Elizabethan England:
limited rehearsal, scrolls in hand, audience interaction, and an onstage prompter.
You’re welcome to arrive during the hour before the play to watch the pregame song and dance and fight rehearsals. Children, picnics and leashed pups are welcome.
Shakespeare in the Park
Friday, July 5
7 pm – Merry Wives of Windsor
Cathedral Park, N. Edison St. and Pittsburg Ave. in Portland
Saturday, July 6
7 pm – King Lear
Cathedral Park, N. Edison St. and Pittsburg Ave. in Portland
In Shakespeare’s Era, the audience knew the actors had not rehearsed and that the only context each had of the play was their own role on a scroll. The play was as fresh to the actors as the audience.
In the OPS, you’ll NEVER see the same cast do the same play in the same way. Because Shakespeare should be a little dangerous!
“Original Practice Shakespeare players have a great talent for improv, making the Bard’s words not just relevant, but also bringing out the best lighter qualities of the script…this allows the audience and cast to work together, and the words to stand, as they can, on their own.” ~ Oregon Arts Watch
