Shakespeare Festival To Return To Brooklyn This Weekend

BROOKLYN, NY — A Brooklyn street will be transformed into a festival ground in honor of Shakespeare's birthday this weekend for the first time since 2019.

Brave New World Repertory Theatre will bring back its "Shakespeare on Stratford" festival on Saturday with performances spread across nine porches on the Ditmas Park street. The event will be in honor of Shakespeare's birthday, which is thought to be sometime in April, and National Poetry Month, organizers said.

"We hope this event will be a welcome and poetic celebration of live performance after a long year of Zoom," said festival founder Claire Beckman, the theatre's artistic director.

The festival will span Stratford Road between Slocum Place and Matthews Court.

Visitors can stop by for one of four 20-minute shows where they will be guided from porch to porch to watch performances from 19 costumed actors, singers, dancers and musicians. The performances will include The Bard's sonnets, madrigals including Summer-Is-A-Coming In, and traditional Afro-Haitian folklore dancing celebrating Spring and re-birth.

There will also be a special appearance by Brooklyn band Jennifer Milich and the Lonesome Sea, who will perform traditional and redux versions of “The Cuckoo.”

Here are the details:

WHAT: Shakespeare on Stratford, a live FREE family friendly community celebration in honor of Shakespeare’s birthday.

WHEN: Saturday, April 24 from 3:30-5:00pm

WHERE: Stratford Road, between Slocum Place and Matthews Court.

WHO: From Brooklyn's Brave New World Repertory Theatre, Shakespeare on Stratford co-directors are: Claire Beckman, Nancy Shankman and Sheila Anozier.