Beginning May 29 at 8 p.m., the St Louis Shakespeare Festival kicks off the virtual companion to the beloved SHAKE38 program created in 2012. For five years, SHAKE38 brought professional and amateur artists together to reshape Shakespeare’s stories using their own voice and perspective.
Recent national events are stark reminders there is still an exceptional need for stories about the full range of human experience–often joyous and kind but sometimes painful and unjust. The Festival is honored to bring this program back in a new form and hand the reigns of our online platforms off to the talented and diverse group of performers for each of these 20 nights.
With the recent announcement that we are postponing this summer’s production of Much Ado About Nothing, we will be approaching the first June in twenty years without Shakespeare in Forest Park. Instead of going dark – we are resurrecting Shake38 as SHAKE20.
20 nights of virtual Shakespeare plays for each night we would have been in Shakespeare Glen. You are invited to join!
Performances will take place every night but Monday, May 29 – June 20, 2020.
Go the Festival’s Facebook page (every night but Monday) at 8 p.m. and watch live. If you miss a night, each performance will be archived here and available for viewing at any time.
Parameter: Create a 20-30 minute adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s 38 plays crafted for a live streaming experience.
Lynn (Zipfel) Venhaus has had a continuous byline in St. Louis metro region publications since 1978. She writes features and news for Belleville News-Democrat and contributes to St. Louis magazine and other publications.
She is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic, currently reviews films for Webster-Kirkwood Times and KTRS Radio, covers entertainment for PopLifeSTL.com and co-hosts podcast PopLifeSTL.com…Presents.
She is a member of Critics Choice Association, where she serves on the women’s and marketing committees; Alliance of Women Film Journalists; and on the board of the St. Louis Film Critics Association. She is a founding and board member of the St. Louis Theater Circle.
She is retired from teaching journalism/media as an adjunct college instructor.