"The New World," a St. Louis adaptation of Shakespeare's "The Tempest," will be presented April 27-29 on Cherokee Street by Shakespeare Festival St. Louis. The new play will debut with the inaugural Shakespeare in Streets Festival, the Shakespeare Festival's biggest programming expansion since it started in 2001.
Under the direction of Tlaloc Rivas, shopkeepers, artists and other people who live and work in the Gravois Park neighborhood will perform the new play along with professional actors; neighborhood auditions are still going on.
Rivas and the creative team have spent the past three months immersing themselves in the Gravois Park neighborhood to fashion a one-hour version of "The Tempest" that resonates with life in its streets. They'll start rehearsing at the end of March.
The free, outdoor production will begin each night at 8 p.m. Shakespeare in the Streets is underwritten by PNC Arts Alive and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Judith Newmark is the Post-Dispatch's theater critic. Follow her in Culture Club and @JudithNewmark.
