TRAVERSE CITY — The Village at Grand Traverse Commons will host The Ides of March, a free Shakespeare festival featuring food, drink and live performance, from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday, March 15.
Organizers said the event will include “bite-sized” interpretations of Shakespeare scenes performed in unexpected spaces around the Village, with a short scene from one of Shakespeare’s works offered every half hour from 1 to 5 p.m. Guests will move from venue to venue in a choose-your-own-adventure format, encountering scenes, songs and soliloquies, with time between performances to linger over local wine and beer, enjoy Sunday fare and take in the historic atmosphere.
The experience is a collaboration between theater nonprofit The World’s a Stage, City Opera House, Mashup Rock ‘n’ Roll Musical, Left Foot Charley, Earthen Ales, ŌBrien Vineyards and The Village at Grand Traverse Commons.
Bryan Ulbrich of Left Foot Charley led the effort to activate local businesses by creating an arts experience for locals during the winter months, organizers said.
“Traverse City is lucky to have so many incredible local businesses at the Commons,” The World’s a Stage Executive Artistic Director Leo Buzzell-Bevington said. “The Ides of March is, in many ways, a celebration of all of these local businesses and spaces, creating free, public art that really lights up each venue in a different way.”
Organizers said the festival’s performances are an example of “site-specific” theater, a style that stages shows in nontraditional spaces such as bars, cafes, alleyways, courtyards or junkyards to shape the experience.
“Site-specific theater is actually a great match for Shakespeare,” Buzzell-Bevington said. “Venues like bars, wineries, or cafes help ground the old-fashioned text, making it easier to understand and, maybe more importantly, way more fun.”
Organizers said participating businesses will offer drink specials during the event. More information is available at theworldsastage.org/ides.
The World’s a Stage is a nonprofit dedicated to making art, literature and live theater available to all. The organization produces the annual Lakeside Shakespeare Festival in Frankfort and will present the inaugural Ides of March festival in Traverse City with short scenes from Shakespeare’s works featuring local actors. More information is available at www.theworldsastage.org.
Mashup Rock ’n’ Roll Musical produces new works that remix popular culture and will perform a short scene from its recent production “Bromeo and the Juliettes.”
More information is available at www.mashuprockandrollmusical.com.