Lincoln’s Flatwater Shakespeare Company is preparing for their third summer tour. The company will perform Shakespeare’s comedy “Much Ado About Nothing” in several Lincoln parks after the snow melts and the temperatures begin to soar.
Following successful summer tours of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “Twelfth Night” in 2011 and 2012, Flatwater has hired Angels Theatre Company Artistic Director Becky Key Boesen to direct “Much Ado” for their 2013 tour.
Boesen has acted in a handful of Flatwater productions since the company was established in 2004. Having a rapport with friend and Artistic Director Bob Hall, Boesen said that “over time, it seemed a good fit for me to direct something for Flatwater.”
Boesen described the Shakespeare in the park tour as a “comfortable, informal setting where friends and families can gather and celebrate some of the best plays ever written.”
She added that the atmosphere of the parks provides an “inclusive and intimate setting” that really invites
the audience to “come along for the ride.” The free performances provide an opportunity for new audience members to give Shakespeare a try.
For first-time Shakespeare-goers, Boesen says, “Shakespeare was not intended to be exclusive or intimidating. I want the audience to under- stand and enjoy their experience. It’s also a plus if they walk away thinking about love.”
Flatwater Artistic Director Bob Hall said that when he has convinced people to try Shakespeare, “they end up feeling surprised that they enjoyed the experience so much,” and satisfied by “experiencing work that was so dense and yet so basic that we still react strongly five hundred years on.”
Hall said that Flatwater “operates on good acting— the willingness of a bunch of talented people to investigate how Shakespeare’s language, plot and characterization works.”
“The audience is an intrinsic part of the show,” Hall added. “There has to be a joy in the doing and the watching. I think we achieve that.”
Performances of “Much Ado” are free to the public. Hall said to make this possible, the company is relying on grants from the Woods Charitable Foundation and contributions from audience members.
Although the project has been well-received by the community the past two years, Hall said that the Woods funding will end after this summer so they “will have to be underwritten by other sources or go back to charging admission.”
“Much Ado About Nothing” will play at the Lincoln Community Foundation Gardens June 6-9 and 13-16. The show will then tour June 20-23 and 27-30 at Belmont Park, Densmore Park, Havelock Park, Henry Park, Bethany Park, First Plymouth Church, and the pond at Wyuka Cemetery.
Dates for each location are to be determined. Updated information will be available at www.flatwatershakespeare.org.