Shakespeare Chattanooga performs a reading of the Bard’s Julius Caesar, the second play in the company’s three-play series at The Highland Center in Brainerd. The reading will take place at the Highland Center, 104 N. Tuxedo Ave., at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 15. Suggested donation is $5.
Directed by Shakespeare Chattanooga Producing Director Janis Hashe, the cast includes Kevin Bartolomucci, Dakota Brown, Steven Disbrow, Ward Fleissner, Steven LaMar, Heath Montgomery, Elena Nikolaeva, Christopher Watkins, Ayana Winchester and Hashe.
“Julius Caesar has a huge cast,” says Ms.
Hashe. “We are solving that problem by having a Chorus, whose members play ‘everyone else.’ It will still be pretty interesting for the audience to see a play that isn’t performed often, but is amazingly relevant for its insights into political power plays and manipulations.”
Ms. Hashe notes that although hapless school children are still sometimes expected to recite Mark Antony’s famous “Friends, Romans, countrymen” oration, they rarely get the context in which the speech is delivered. “Mark Antony, as Shakespeare depicts him, is no hero. He’s a cynical demagogue, ruthlessly exploiting the common people, whom he despises.”
The Highland Center, now the permanent home of Shakespeare Chattanooga, is located in the former 21st Century Academy magnet school; prior to that, the building was Brainerd Junior High. It is now privately owned and more and more community programming is being made possible there.
For more information, contact Janis Hashe at 423-622-2862 or jhashe@epbfi.com.