Knoxify

A scene from the Ten­nessee Stage Company’s pro­duc­tion of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” in which a band of tin­kers dis­cuss a play that they intend to present at the wed­ding of Theaseus and Hippolyta.

Before this sum­mer, I had never attended a pro­duc­tion of the Ten­nessee Stage Com­pany (TSC). This past sum­mer, I attended their pre­sen­ta­tions of Ham­let and A Midsummer’s Night Dream. I am glad I attended. And, if you do, you will be too — next summer.

But, you don’t have to wait until next sum­mer to expe­ri­ence the good­ness that is TSC. Begin­ning in Novem­ber, they will be pre­sent­ing I Hate Ham­let Thurs­day through Fri­day nights and Sun­day after­noon at the Children’s The­atre of Knoxville. The pro­duc­tion dates are from Novem­ber 27 through Decem­ber 15, 2009.

Scene from “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.”

And, now is the time to make plans to attend TSC’s pro­duc­tion of I Hate Ham­let. You can pur­chase tick­ets by call­ing TSC at 865 – 546-4280. The price of admis­sion is $15 for gen­eral admis­sion and $12 for seniors and students.

The sum­mer Shake­speare series began in 1981 and has been pre­sented on Knoxville’s Mar­ket Square Mall for the last 9 sum­mers. The stage at the north end of Mar­ket Square Mall is where the Shake­speare on the Square series is pre­sented. The stage and audi­ence are sur­rounded by restau­rants and shops and peo­ple pass­ing by.

Scene from “A Midsummer’s Night Dream.”

The plays of William Shake­speare, as pre­sented, are min­i­mal­ist in scale. There is lit­tle in the way of proper scenery and cos­tum­ing, and the scripts are abbre­vi­ated to keep the story line coher­ent and tight, avoid­ing sub­plots that might oth­er­wise dis­tract the audi­ence in the time­frame available.

Unless you are an Eng­lish scholar, you won’t notice the edited plots as the plays and act­ing are both good enough that the audi­ence for­gets they are in the mid­dle of a busy city mall. The actors, who obvi­ously enjoy their roles, are seem­ingly unmind­ful of the city around them. In keep­ing with the sum­mer atmos­phere, the act­ing is light enough to keep the char­ac­ters fresh and not overly pompous. On the whole, It makes for an enjoy­able evening.

Num­ber from an open­ing skit pre­sented before the start of “Ham­let.”

The plays are pre­sented free of charge, though the TSC gladly accepts any dona­tion you may want to pro­vide. Park­ing is close by, and free. Mar­ket Square mer­chants are happy to pro­vide food, drink and ser­vice so that you can make an evening of it. And, you can bring the whole fam­ily, includ­ing the dog, if you want. All-in-all, an oppor­tu­nity to escape the hum­drum as a fam­ily and is highly recommended.

Scene from “Ham­let.” Ham­let (cen­ter) is talk­ing to Gilden­stern (right) and Rosen­crantz (left).

TSC is a non-profit orga­ni­za­tion and depends upon the gen­er­ous dona­tions of the pub­lic, admis­sions fees to other pre­sen­ta­tions, and a small amount of pub­lic grant monies to sup­port its pro­grams. In addi­tion to the Shake­speare on the Square series, TSC pro­grams include the Time­less Works Series, the New Play Fes­ti­val, and an edu­ca­tional and out­reach pro­gram. Dur­ing the com­ing spring, TSC also plans to intro­duce a new pro­gram, the Ten­nessee Williams Fes­ti­val.

Their next pro­duc­tion, “I Hate Ham­let,” is this com­ing Novem­ber, is a part of its Time­less Works series. This spring, TSC plans to present the world pre­miere pro­duc­tion of Jay Hul­ings “The Church of Dimin­ish­ing Returns.” The pro­duc­tion is a part of its New Play Fes­ti­val program.

Scene from “Ham­let.” Claudius, Hamlet’s uncle (right) and Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother (right).

For more infor­ma­tion about the plays and pro­grams, you can go to the Ten­nessee Stage Company’s web site, located here.

For addi­tional pic­tures from TSC’s Shake­speare pro­duc­tions, go here, or to view my web site and blog, go here.