Shakespeare On Stratford Road: Bard Gets Brooklyn Birthday Bash

DITMAS PARK, BROOKLYN — Actually, it's Stratford [Road]-Upon-Avon.

The Brave New World Repertory Theatre will celebrate Williams Shakespeare's birthday Sunday by performing a slew of sonnets on Stratford Road porches, the company announced.

The bard's birthday bash will bring 18 actors to porches along Stratford between Cortelyou Road and Slocum Place from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., organizers said.

This parade of iambic pentameter will culminate in a 3 p.m. Stratford Road singalong of Now is the Month of Maying, a popular madrigal from Shakespearean days, and "courtly line dancers" taking to the streets and performing Afro-Haitian dance.

The festival celebrates the 455th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth — which was April 23, 1564 — but is also meant to "bridge the cultural, economic divide of the communities on either side of Flatbush Avenue," said BNW co-founder Claire Beckman, who directed the sonnets.

"Everyone should have access to theatre, music and dance," said Beckman. "So we hope our neighbors in Ditmas Park and East Flatbush will come together for this free secular celebration of spring."

This is not the Brave New World Rep's first foray into outdoor performances. The theater troupe produced Arthur Miller's "A View From the Bridge" on the Waterfront Barge Museum in Red Hook in 2018 and launched with a 2005 production of "To Kill a Mockingbird," which also took place on the front porches of Ditmas Park.

Brave New World Rep's SHAKESPEARE ON STRATFORD Spring Festival

When: Sunday, April 28 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.

Where: Stratford Road between Cortelyou Road and Slocum Place

How To Get There: Take the Q train to Beverley Road or Cortelyou Road

Rain Date: Sunday, May 5th.