After a wonderful summer in 2024, and with increasing demand for Shakespeare programming, The World's A Stage Players, the Players' resident Shakespeare troupe, is proud to be launching their first ever winter show this coming January. They will mount Shakespeare's domestic horror story, Macbeth, at the First Parish Church at 20 Lexington Road in Concord (right around the corner from 51 Walden).
Our production of this fast-paced, brutal tragedy will focus on the familial trauma at the heart of the play and the disfiguring power of grief.
The World's A Stage Players are proud to premiere their original tour through the people and places of twenty-four of Shakespeare's plays. Join them as they explore pieces from early comedy and high comedy, English history and Roman history, good love and bad love, and the classic tragedies and reflective romances...all in an evening!
The Merry Wives of Windsor is a fun frolic, a comedy that lampoons the idea that the men are the cleverer of the sexes, and that reinforces the concept of true love. With themes of love and marriage, jealousy and revenge, social class and wealth, and plot points such as Falstaff sending identical love letters to two wealthy married women, and three different men vying for the hand of the young Anne Page, it's a bit reminiscent of a soap opera.
So while remaining true to Shakespeare's language in our condensed version, we're presenting this play as a modern-day soap opera, complete with villains, heroes/heroines, clever characters and oafish egotistical suitors. This rollicking comedic romp focuses on the town of Windsor and is the only Shakespearean play located totally in England.
Our troupe began an ongoing relationship with the plays of Shakespeare's Henriad, by presenting Richard II. This lesser known, but beautifully poetic play, written around the same time as A Midsummer Night's Dream, follows the deposition of Richard by his cousin, Henry Bolingbroke (later Henry IV) and begins an inherently dramatic series of events that covers 185 years of English history.
There's drama, intrigue, betrayal and so much more; perfect for a late summer evening.
Midsummer is largely a work of Shakespeare's own creation — a madcap mash-up of Greek heroes, Amazon queens, young lovers, "rude mechanicals", and a world of fairies and sprites with their own royalty. On the eve of Duke Theseus' wedding to his fiancée (captive?) Hippolyta, Hermia and her love Lysander fly to the woods to escape the dictates of her father Egeus. They are pursued by Demetrius, who also loves Hermia, and Helena, who desperately loves him. Meanwhile in the wood, a group of craftsmen meet to rehearse a play in honor of Theseus' wedding.
What these mortals don't know is that they have happened into a wood ruled by Oberon and Titania, king and queen of a fairy world thrown into turmoil with their discord — discord aided and abetted by a hobgoblin called Puck whose own devices, whatever they are, may also be at play. In a time of the year known for lusty merriment, all of the parties are thrown into an ecstatic and energetic evening of coupling, uncoupling, transformation, and emergence.
Pericles is a Shakespearean fairy tale — a sprawling, epic adventure that plays out over the course of fourteen years, as we follow the ups and downs of the young Prince of Tyre as he seeks his place in the world. It's got kings (good and evil), queens (good and evil), princesses, pirates, shipwrecks (yes, multiple shipwrecks), famine, riddles, and the triumph of love and purity.
As You Like It (condensed) is a pastoral tale of lost souls in Shakespeare's fictional Forest of Arden. Our production draws inspiration from the real Ardennes Forest of France and the Lost Generation of men and women who struggled through the displacement of World War I. It is a play about the redemptive power of love, full of the whimsy, farcical mistaken identity, and word play that make Shakespeare's comedies so fun.
As You Like It (condensed) is a pastoral tale of lost souls in Shakespeare's fictional Forest of Arden. Our production draws inspiration from the real Ardennes Forest of France and the Lost Generation of men and women who struggled through the displacement of World War I. It is a play about the redemptive power of love, full of the whimsy, farcical mistaken identity, and word play that make Shakespeare's comedies so fun.
This production is brought to you under the auspices of our local cable TV station, Minuteman Media Network, which supports Concord and surrounding towns in many ways including your Community Theater! This video was on Concord and Carlisle's Public Access Channel 8 on Wednesday, September 30th at 7:00 pm, and also had its premiere on the Minuteman Media Networks YouTube page at the same time.
The Winter's Tale (condensed) is Shakespeare's classic tale of jealousy, anger, betrayal, and the need for redemption and forgiveness.
This rendition of one of Shakespeare's less commonly produced works is set in the 50s and 60s. Come watch as Leontes, king of Sicilia, is driven mad with jealousy over the thought that his wife is pregnant with his best friend's child. See the inner struggle of his trusted advisor, Camillo, who must decide whether he is loyal to his king or his own conscience. Journey with the poor babe, whose rough start would make anyone doubt that this could have a happily ever after. See how it all turns out!
Julius Caesar (condensed) is Shakespeare's timeless and timely take on the nature of leadership, loyalty, and the power of persuasion.
Presented in the classic Roman setting, with some nods to the present as Shakespeare likely intended, our production embraces the ambiguity of right and wrong that has always followed this play. More oratory than poetry, the play openly asks, and leaves the audience to answer: is Caesar rightly assassinated by freedom fighters or overthrown by a short-sighted mob? Does Antony justifiably seek revenge and justice for Rome after the assassination or is he motivated by his own opportunity for power?
Shakespeare's "modern" comedy, Much Ado About Nothing (condensed), is filled with hilarious deception, cracking word play, and truly dramatic consequences. It is Shakespeare's brilliant take on what true love really looks like. Follow the arrival of Don Pedro and his followers, Benedick and Claudio, to the home of the noble Leonato for a summer vacation. While Claudio falls instantly in love and wins the hand of Leonato's daughter, Hero, Benedick restarts his ongoing war of words with Beatrice, a woman his equal in every way. Will Don Pedro and friends trick Beatrice and Benedick into falling in love? Will the nefarious Don John ruin the marriage of Claudio and Hero? And what hilarious problems will the bumbling neighborhood watch cause? See Much Ado to find out!
Shakespeare's hijinks-filled comedy, The Comedy of Errors (condensed), was presented with a circus theme. In addition to Shakespeare's own inherent comedy, the troupe sought to work on elements of clowning throughout the production, to bring the presentation to brilliant life.
Shakespeare's beloved comedy, Twelfth Night (condensed), centers on the real and mistaken love coursing through the play's coterie of memorable characters: the proud Orsino and Olivia, the siblings Viola and Sebastian, and the foolish and fooled Malvolio.
The Tempest is often considered Shakespeare's final play. In conjunction with dancers from the School of Ballet Arts, this production explored the play's themes of family, freedom, and the meaning to be found in the many stages of life.
Video Clips:
This abridged version of A Midsummer Night's Dream centers on the hilarious activities of Peter Quince the carpenter and his band of laborers (dubbed "rude mechanicals" by Puck, the mischievious sprite), as they plan to put on a play for the wedding of the Duke and the Queen, "the most lamentable comedy and most cruel death of Pyramus and Thisbe."
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