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The Bard, laid bare
BY MEGAN GRUMBLING
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Shakespeare is usually a big production, literally, with lots of cloaks and gowns, staffs and skulls and scabbards, and all the rest. That’s great, but I happen to know that there are folks out there who’d just as soon experience the Bard’s language and imagery stripped to its fair and shapely sinews. These wantons — the sort that swoon for fine grammar and double entendres — would fain take their Shakespeare undressed. Hence Naked Shakespeare. Under the guiding hands of Michael Levine and Michael Howard, Acorn Productions’ Shakespeare Ensemble has twice now obliged Portland with their productions of sonnets and soliloquies performed sans trappings, in the comfort of neighborhood watering holes. The good news is that Naked Shakespeare has now become a regular event at Meritage, and its thespians will casually burst into verse the third Tuesday of every month. The Ensemble’s actors are a diverse crew with affiliations all over the Portland theater scene, from Mad Horse and the Stage at Spring Point to Two Lights, the Theater Project, and even the Escapists. In repertory fashion, line-up and material will change slightly each month, and the program of the evening will literally be in the hands of the audience, as they cry out sonnet numbers at will and the actors oblige. The next two dates of Naked Shakespeare are August 15 and September 20, at Meritage, and there are two sets each evening, one at 7:30 pm and one at 8:30. Admission is free, though no one will decline a donation.
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