Begun in 1993, the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane has become a mainstay of cultural entertainment during the summer months when most live production venues are taking a traditional 2-3 month hiatus between cultural seasons.
And in keeping with the New Orleans spirit of doing things a bit differently, the Shakespeare Festival brings the best of the Great Bard's 16th and 17th century plays into the more modern era. Traditional classical Shakespeare purists as well as those with more contemporary tastes will all find common ground in these stagings. The plots stay basically the same: only the dates and the venues change.
In recent years, the festival has set its productions in New Orleans, changing centuries and locales as productions dictate, but without losing the intent of the Bard's language. For example, Summer 2009 audiences saw King Lear set during a 1957 segregationist election, Comedy of Errors in New Orleans before the Louisiana Purchase and an intern production of Much Ado About Nothing in the French Quarter of the early seventies.
Evening and afternoon matinee performances are offered.
