Shakespeare Festival to celebrate the Bard's 400-year-old legacy

Shakespeare enthusiasts around the globe are celebrating the 400-year-old legacy of the Bard in 2016, and Grand Valley State University will join in the celebration through a variety of stage performances and events during the annual Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival.

To begin this year's festival, theater students will bring to life one of the Bard's darkest and final comedies, "Measure for Measure."

Performances of "Measure for Measure" will take place September 30 and October 1, 6 and 7, at 7:30 p.m., and October 2, 8 and 9, at 2 p.m. All performances will take place in Louis Armstrong Theatre located in the Performing Arts Center on the Allendale Campus.

"Measure for Measure" takes audiences deep into the underbelly of a city where authority is absent and the scales of justice are becoming increasingly unbalanced. In Venice, where the play begins, brothels and ale houses are thriving, and the law has become "more mocked than feared." As a result, the Duke chooses to take a holiday, leaving behind a proclamation to tear down the brothels and reform the city's morality. To enforce this new direction, the Duke appoints the Lord Angelo as his deputy.

Roger Ellis, professor of theater and "Measure for Measure" director, said one of the primary challenges facing the students starring in "Measure for Measure" is the role of religion. 

"This is the only play of Shakespeare's where the Christian church must work together with the political authorities to restore public morality and order, and enforce justice," Ellis said. "I think that our entertainment media present very few examples of how religious faith and spirituality penetrates everyday life, despite the strong presence of religious education across the country."

"Measure for Measure" will feature a cast of not only Grand Valley students, but also local guest actors Christopher Weaver, Gary Mitchell and Kyle Westmaas.

Tickets for "Measure for Measure" are $14 for adults; $12 for GVSU faculty, alumni, staff; $12 for seniors; and $6 for students. This production is recommended for ages 8 and up. No children under school age will be admitted.

To complement the performances of "Measure for Measure," Phyllis Rackin, this year's bi-annual Shakespeare Conference keynote speaker, will discuss the central issues and differing interpretations of the play.

"'Measure for Measure' has always been one of my favorites among Shakespeare's plays, but until very recently, not many people shared my enthusiasm," said Rackin, professor of English emerita at the University of Pennsylvania. "The central issues of high political theory and low sexual practice looked like an improbable combination. Now, however, the combination suddenly seems to make sense, especially in this election year when the two issues are joined again, both in the debates that divide our own competing candidates."

Rackin, a former president of the Shakespeare Association of America, will make her address October 7, at 4 p.m., in the Cook-DeWitt Center on the Allendale Campus. For more information about conference programming and registration, visit www.gvsu.edu/shakesconference.

The Shakespeare Festival will conclude this year with a condensed, 45-minute version of "Macbeth" performed by Grand Valley's all-student touring Shakespeare troupe, Bard to Go. The performance, which takes place November 5 in Loosemore Auditorium located in the DeVos Center on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus, will be preceded by the awards ceremony for the annual Shakespeare Festival Student Competition beginning at 1 p.m. The competition awards students for creative, critical, historical, or scholarly projects relating to Shakespeare, his times, and the Renaissance.

For more information and a complete schedule of Grand Valley Shakespeare Festival events, visit www.gvsu.edu/shakes, or contact James Bell, Shakespeare Festival director, at (616) 331-3066 or [email protected].