Shakespeare in LA

Pictured: Old Globe Managing Director Michael G. Murphy (back row, left) and Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein (back row, right) with the cast and community partners of All’s Well That Ends Well. Photo by Mike Hausberg.

The Old Globe begins an exciting new production platform this month. Globe for All is a free professional touring production of Shakespeare that will allow the theatre to serve more communities throughout San Diego by collaborating with a diverse range of local organizations. Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein directs the first production, Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well with a cast of local professional actors and recent graduates of the Old Globe/University of San Diego Graduate Theatre Program. The tour begins Oct. 28 and will culminate in three low-cost performances Nov. 7 – 9 in the Globe’s Hattox Hall, part of the Karen and Donald Cohn Education Center in the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. 

The tour will play a variety of community venues including military bases, recreation centers, libraries, centers for the elderly, homeless shelters, and correctional facilities and its emphasis will be on reaching underserved communities and multigenerational audiences. Globe for All employs a model of community outreach designed to make theatre matter to audiences who, for whatever reason, have not enjoyed regular access to the professional performing arts. It will play in non-theatrical venues such as gymnasiums, cafeterias, and multipurpose rooms. With production values scaled to those spaces, the tour will give audiences an intimate, up-close, and visceral experience of live performance and will foster a shared sense of community between performer and spectator.

The cast for All’s Well That Ends Well will include Meaghan Boeing (Countess, Soldier, Priest, Mariana), Adam Gerber (Bertram), Kushtrim Hoxha (King, Interpreter), Stephen Hu (Lafeu, Soldier), Allison Layman (Diana, Physician, Soldier), Erin Roché (Helena), and Robbie Simpson (Parolles), Christopher Salazar (First Lord Dumaine),Monique Gaffney (Renata, Widow, Physician) and Albert Park (Second Lord Dumaine).

Globe for All will also enrich the theatre experience by offering workshops and other activities to the community. Audiences will be offered a one-hour pre-show workshop, with Globe teaching artists introducing Shakespeare’s language, themes, characters, and stories to familiarize audiences – some of whom will have had little previous experience with the Bard – with what to expect.

During Barry Edelstein’s tenure at The Public Theater, one of his most exciting accomplishments was helping to launch The Public’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit, which brought professional Shakespeare for free to residents of homeless shelters, rehab centers, prisons, and other underserved audiences.

“Since my arrival in San Diego I’ve looked for ways to share the wonders of The Old Globe with more and more of our city, so I’m particularly proud and pleased to launch Globe for All,” says Edelstein. “It’s our core conviction that theatre in general, and Shakespeare in particular, are necessary to living a full and rich life, and yet we recognize that some in our city either don’t know about the work we do or cannot enjoy regular access to it. It is therefore our obligation to help overcome whatever barriers—economic, geographical, and cultural—stand between us and the widest possible cross section of our city. Globe for All is an exciting way to bring the joys and thrills of live, professional Shakespeare to San Diegans who may not have experienced them before. We are grateful to the community-based organizations that are partnering with us and to the civic-minded philanthropies that are supporting this effort. Together, we can make theatre matter to many more of our fellow citizens.”

Globe for All will be presented in Southeastern San Diego with a free public performance at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation Celebration Hall on Sunday, Nov. 2 at 2:00 pm (404 Euclid Ave.; first come, first served). The second free public performance will be at the San Diego Central Library on Tuesday, Nov. 4 at 6:30 pm (Shiley Special Events Suite, 330 Park Blvd.; first come, first served; call (619) 236-5800 for more info).

In addition to these free public performances, the first Globe for All Shakespeare tour will be performed for:

•  Sailors at Naval Base San Diego on Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 5:00 pm
• The YWCA of San Diego County on Wednesday, Oct. 29 at 6:00 pm
• Veterans Village of San Diego on Thursday, Oct. 30 at 7:00 pm
• The George L. Stevens Senior Center on Friday, Oct. 31 at 1:30 pm
• Marines at either MCRD or MCAS Miramar on Saturday, Nov. 1, time TBD
• Father Joe’s Villages on Wednesday, Nov. 5 at 2:00 pm
• Centinela State Prison on Thursday, Nov. 6 at 1:00 pm

The tour will culminate with three low-cost performances offered in the Globe’s Hattox Hall on Friday, November 7 at 7:00 p.m., Saturday, November 8 at 7:00 p.m., and Sunday, November 9 at 2:00 p.m. These performances will be open to the public. Tickets are $10 and are currently available to subscribers. Tickets will go on sale to the general public, subject to availability, on Tuesday, October 28. www.theoldglobe.org