Will Kempe’s Players Cooperative, the Capital District’s only touring Shakespeare theatre company, launches its seventh season of Summer Shakespeare. This year, WKP invites you to an innovative, electrifying blend of traditional Shakespearean craft whirled with modern audience-engaging performance art.
On July 13 & 14, WKP premieres “Midsummer Madness: A Shakespearience.” In this interactive twist on Shakespeare’s beloved “Midsummer,” both the cast and the audience will collaboratively create the show each night, ensuring that no two shows are the same. At the start of each performance the cast list will be drawn live on stage. Actors will swap scripts, speed-design their costumes, and choose their props in a race against the clock as the show will begin five minutes after casting. This process, reminiscent of the spontaneous and collaborative nature of Elizabethan theatre, offers a fresh take on Shakespearean performance for the Capital Region.
On July 20 & 21, WKP sets sail with “Pericles, Prince of Tyre,” an overlooked 17th century tragicomic romance. Young Prince Pericles naïvely embarks on his journey— navigating the exotic eastern Mediterranean— seeking adventure, love, and happiness. And since this is a romantic epic tale, he contends with kings, pirates, winds, water and his own despair in the noble search for love and a safe harbor. Co-directors Shane Sczepankowski and Phil Beattie have re-visioned the traditional three-door background as an evocation of sea and sail. Likewise, musical director Kristoph DiMaria anchors us in the chanteys of sailors and other songs of the sea. Michael Sinkora as Pericles and DiMaria as the bardic narrator Gower lead an able ensemble, each of whom portrays multiple characters Pericles encounters on his journey.
From July 13 until August 31, Will Kempe’s Players will tour various locations in the greater capital region, both indoors and out. The first two weekends are to be performed at Troy’s Prospect Park, with shows to follow at Crellin Park, Lionheart on the Green, Indian Ladder Farms, WAMC’s The Linda, Sand Lake Center for the Arts, Shepard Park, Jennings Landing, and Round Lake Auditorium. All summer WKP performances start at 4:00 pm (aside from one 6:30 pm curtain at Round Lake). Full performance schedule available at http://www.willkempesplayers.com/currently-performing. This 2024 season is handsomely supported by our generous patrons: A.R.T./NEW YORK, STEWART’S SHOPS, FRIENDS OF PROSPECT PARK, RPI PHI SIGMA KAPPA, and THE ARTS CENTER OF THE CAPITAL REGION
Founded in 2017, Will Kempe’s Players is the only worker-owned Shakespeare cooperative in the United States and has been touring Shakespearean works for 7 summers now. In addition to their standard fare, WKP also stages original works and devised adaptations of classics. Their mission is to bring the practices and conditions of the Shakespearean stage into the 21st Century, through Original Practices and the works of Shakespeare himself and beyond. For more information, visit www.willkempesplayers.com or follow @WillKempesPlayers on social media.
