NY Classical returns to live, in-person performances with King Lear in parks around the city this summer
KING LEAR
Multiple locations
Tuesday – Sunday, June 24 – August 8, free with RSVP, 7:00
nyclassical.org/king-lear
In June 2020, with the pandemic lockdown shuttering live performance around the country, theater companies scrambled for ways to present work in virtual platforms. NY Classical, which has presented more than seven hundred free, mostly outdoor shows since 2000, was working on an adaptation of King Lear for that summer, using Nahum Tate’s 1681 “happy ending.” Instead, they staged an online Zoom reading last June. In a twi-ny talk, artistic director Stephen Burdman explained, “King Lear, with alternating endings (both Shakespeare’s and Tate’s), was always our plan for our 2020 summer season. This is the culmination of a three-year project of investigating how Shakespeare’s company toured their shows outside London. In the time of plague, theaters were closed in Elizabethan London, and while we never expected to have a pandemic of our own. . . . We also had great success with both our six-actor Romeo and Juliet as well as the alternating versions of The Importance of Being Earnest, so this project was a combination of these recent experiments. We auditioned and hired the actors and staff prior to New York State on Pause, and we wanted to make sure to keep our commitments to these wonderful people. In addition to a union salary, they are receiving pension and healthcare. This is an opportunity for us to develop the production with these artists and serve our audience community in the safest way possible.”
With the lockdown over and New York rising from the ashes of a devastating health and economic crisis, NY Classical is ready to stage King Lear the way it originally intended to, in parks across the city. The cast features John Michalski as Lear, Connie Castanzo as Cordelia and the Fool, Jasminn Johnson as Goneril, Aryana Sedarati as Regan, Nick Salamone as Gloucester, Linden Tailor as Edgar, Amar Atkins as Edmund, Michael Stewart Allen as Cornwall, Grant Chapman as Oswald, Cedric Lamar as Kent, and Clay Storseth as Albany, with Ollie Corchado, Evan Moore-Coll, and Saleemah Sharpe. The two-hour production, directed by Burdman, will run Tuesdays to Sundays beginning June 24 through July 11 in Central Park at West 103rd St., followed July 13-18 at MetroTech Commons in Brooklyn, July 20-25 in Carl Schurz Park, and July 27 – August 8 at the Battery. Admission is free, but advance RSVP is strongly suggested, as tickets are limited.