Shakespeare 'round the clock

The first year Theatre Arts Students at UWC-USA will shake up Shakespeare on The United World College campus, in Montezuma, on Wednesday, April 23.

The students will perform both The Merchant of Venice (in the Kluge Auditorium at 7 p.m.) and Twelfth Night (beside the Sasakawa Center at 5 p.m.) as part of Shakespeare 24, the largest ever international youth Shakespeare festival.

The Merchant of Venice will be the directing debut for student director Tabias Wilson (Kansas) who has chosen to set the play in 1940’s Venice with a female Shylock (Kelsey Smith, UK)! Twelfth Night will be set in ancient Greece and staged in front of a dramatic rock face transformed into Illyria.

“This is going to be a truly global event,” said UWC Theatre Arts teacher Tim Crofton. “Not only are the productions going to be part of a huge, world-wide event, but many parts of the world are going to be represented on our stage. Nineteen nationalities will be represented in the two UWC casts.”

Shakespeare 24 is a 24- hour globe-trotting extravaganza to mark Shakespeare's 444th birthday, on St. George's Day, April 23. Kicking off in New Zealand and ending 24 hours later in Hawaii, 62 youth groups (11-21 years) from 34 countries will stage specially abridged plays at 7 p.m., local time.

From Mexico to Malawi, Russia to Rio, a cultural baton will be passed around the world in a day. This inaugural year is building up to a round-the-clock international festival which will include most countries in the world by 2012.

With the whole world as their stage, participating groups will bring their own local interpretations to the Bard's plays.

Coming to a time zone near you at 7 p.m. on April 23, Shakespeare 24 is a unique international performance event, enabling a global celebration of youth, culture, creativity and Shakespeare. Twelfth Night will start at 5 p.m. There will be a break for supper and then Merchant of Venice will start at 7 p.m.. These are free events to which everyone is invited.

The plays will run in the following order: New Zealand, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Romania, Turkey, Croatia, Germany, Malawi, Norway, Serbia, Zimbabwe, UK, Ireland, Iceland, Ghana, Cape Verde, Brazil, Bermuda, Mexico, USA–Maryland, Massachusetts, Virginia, Canada, USA-Arkansas, Mexico, USA-New Mexico, USA -Washington, USA-Alaska and USA - Hawaii.

For press information, please contact Tim Crofton at UWC-USA on 454-4229 or Sophie Toumazis at tpr media consultants at sophie@tpr-media.com