Shakespeare in the Parking Lot

The Drilling Company's
SHAKESPEARE IN
THE PARKING LOT

2016 - our 22nd Season
Second season in the new Parking Lot
at Clemente Soto Velez

JULY 7 TO 23
"MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM"
"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a tale of love and enchantment that is simultaneously set in the woodland and in the realm of Fairyland, under the light of the moon. Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, ever fond of holding a mirror up to its own neighborhood, is adapting the story into a fable of the Lower East Side in the first production of its 2016 season. Kathy Curtiss directs.

Foreground: Drew Valins as Puck.

Curtiss sees Shakespeare’s “Dream” as a journey into the mysteries of the subsconscious mind, richly symbolic of the process of how we recognize who we are and whom we love. To reveal this in modern terms, she employs the "heightened" class system of the Lower East Side/East Village--stereotypes of some of the populations abounding there--to represent in modern terms the groups of characters in the play. MORE INFO

JULY 28 TO AUGUST 13
"THE MERCHANT OF VENICE"
One of Shakespeare's most problematic works makes its Shakespeare in the Parking Lot debut when Ezra Barnes directs "The Merchant of Venice." Renaissance motifs of masculine friendship and romantic love are portrayed in contrast to the bitter inhumanity of the moneylender Shylock, whose misfortunes--as a victim of blatant anti-Semitism--are presented so as to arouse understanding and sympathy.

L-R: Jane Bradley as Portia, David Marantz as Shylock, James Davies as Antonio. Photo by Jonathan Slaff.

To emphasize the plays' modern relevance, a contemporary setting has been chosen. Venice is re-imagined as the modern Lower East Side, where Yuppie speculators and fast-track financial magnates live and work along side a wide variety of Jewish businessmen. Belmont, where Portia lives, is like the Upper East Side. MORE INFO

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