26th Annual Free Shakespeare In The Park Opens This Weekend

Gamut Theatre Group's Harrisburg Shakespeare Company opens the 26th Annual Free Shakespeare in the Park, Much Ado About Nothing. Directed by David Ramón Zayas, Much Ado About Nothing runs May 31- June 15, 2019 with performances on Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. at the Levitt Pavilion in Reservoir Park. Admission is free. We will be collecting canned good items for Bethesda Mission and encourage you to bring a donation.

"Friendship is constant in all other things, Save in the office and affairs of love..."
Celebrating victory after a hard-fought war, the ladies and gentlemen of Messina renew their own "merry war" of courtship and deceit, love and vengeance. But in this atmosphere of trickery, where new passions mix with old resentments, can they trust their eyes? Their ears? Their hearts? Shakespeare's wittiest comedy invites us to laugh at love and all the ways it brings out the best (and worst) in us.

Join Gamut Theatre Group's Harrisburg Shakespeare Company for the 26th Annual Free Shakespeare in the Park held at Reservoir Park in Harrisburg! Admission is FREE. We will be collecting canned good items for Bethesda Mission and encourage you to bring a donation. Come early with your own blankets or chairs to grab a spot on the lawn and enjoy Shakespeare under the stars! Don't forget a flashlight to help you get back to your car after the show!

The production's director, David Ramón Zayas, says "Our audience can expect a fast-paced dramedy that reminds us how difficult it's always been to navigate family, love, and duty. Shakespeare's words, written over 400 years ago, convey thoughts and feelings that feel right at home in both our production's setting of an Italian tenement neighborhood circa 1918 and in our lived realities in 2019.

Doing Shakespeare out in Reservoir Park is so special. Zayas remarked "First, the beauty and scale of the park itself. It's such a gift to spend each night there, out in the open grass on the wide hills, under the stars, over the city. Then, the fact that it's still a public park that kids and adults use for recreation means that we have often have guests sitting on our rehearsals, a rare treat for us theatre-folk who usually rehearse in private. Plus, performing at a park--for free, with no reserved seating--means we never know how many people are going to be in the audience each night, and seeing the crowds swell into more and more of the park is exhilarating each time. And another thing! No matter how big the crowds get, the park shows always feel so intimate from the stage, because the audience isn't sitting rigidly in their auditorium chairs. They're relaxed on blankets, lawn chairs, arm-in-arm with someone special to them, eating, drinking, laughing with friends and neighbors. It's a truly unique experience for audience, actors, technicians, all of us.

Gamut Theatre Group is the combined company of Popcorn Hat Players Children's Theatre and Harrisburg Shakespeare Company. Located in Downtown, Harrisburg their mission is to tell classic stories in new and exciting ways for the entertainment and enlightenment of children and adults alike. gamuttheatre.org