What is BITY?

Bard in the Yard is different, unique, one-of-a-kind. It's Shakespeare outdoors and in your face. “I was expecting something different. What I got was something outside the box. The work behind this was incredible.”

Shakespeare under the stars returns to Duncan LittleCreek Gallery with Silver Stage Players and Bard in the Yard! This unique project/production features excerpts from the works of William Shakespeare performed in the intimate and outdoor setting of the DLC Gallery backyard. Conceived by director Frank L. Sawyer in 2011, the Bard in the Yard Project explores common themes in Shakespeare’s plays.

During a conversation with Duncan LittleCreek Gallery’s owners  Jacques Errecart and Joan Anderson about the idea, Manager Jennifer Anderson asked if it could be staged in DLC's backyard. Frank thought this a wonderful synergy of the Bard, a beautiful outdoor setting, and the artsy atmosphere of DLC. Add a catchy title from project member Dianna DuSoleil, and the expertise of Frank's other wonderful friends and amazing local artists including John Wright, Derek Burwell, and Erika Patrick and Bard in the Yard was born.

A “theater-in-the-round”. The stylization will be contemporary and classical Elizabethan and will be placed in both traditional and modern time periods. In the style of Jerzy Growtowski’s Towards a Poor Theatre movement, the show will rely on only the bare technical necessities and will emphasize the actors and their interaction with the audience.

It is an honor to partner with Duncan LittleCreek Gallery and the Silver Stage Players! We could not do this project without their generous support! Performing outdoors in this unique environment will be an amazing experience for our audience, actors, and technicians. We are grateful to all our producing organizations for the chance to bring Shakespeare to our community.

William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon, on April 23, 1564 and raised there by John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. An English poet and playwright, Shakespeare is considered the greatest writer of all time. Between 1585 and 1592, he began a successful career in London as an actor, writer, and part owner of the King’s Men acting company. Shakespeare produced most of his known works between 1589 and 1613. His early plays were mainly comedies and histories while his later works were mostly tragedies. Hamlet, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and Macbeth, are considered some of the finest works in the English language. His plays have been translated into every major language and are performed more often than any other playwright’s. Shakespeare's words have endured for over 400 years, and still reach across the centuries as powerfully as ever.

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