Great Lakes Theater Festival continues its tradition of community outreach next month with the world premiere of Twice Told Tales of the Decameron, a free one-hour touring production scheduled to visit 21 neighborhood venues throughout Northeast Ohio, to kick off the company’s 2011 series of Surround outreach programming.
The tour runs February 15 through March 10 and is designed to support GLTF's upcoming spring main stage production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona (Two Gents) at the Hanna Theatre in PlayhouseSquare. All performances of the touring production are free and open to the public. The touring play is a comedy and is appropriate for all audiences.
“Now more than ever, we believe it is important to share free, professional theatre with people out in their own communities,” says Daniel Hahn, Great Lakes Theater Festival’s Director of Education. The play, adapted from Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron by Hahn, features a touring company of four actors and is directed by Lisa Ortenzi. “Lisa is one of Cleveland’s most gifted directors, both in the realm of education and on stages all over town,” says Hahn.
In 1350, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote his masterpiece, The Decameron, a collection of 100 short stories. Some 250 years later, William Shakespeare took several of those tales and expanded them into full-length plays. GLTF’s 2011 outreach touring play dramatizes two original Boccaccio stories that Shakespeare later amplified into The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Cymbeline, providing a fascinating context for the Festival’s upcoming spring productions of Two Gents and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). “Boccaccio’s The Decameron is without question an inspirational piece of classic literature, and to see stories from this masterpiece brought to life will be something we hope audiences will enjoy and appreciate."
Twice Told Tales of the Decameron is a 70-minute program that includes an introduction and post-performance discussion. GLTF’s Surround programming offers multiple educational programs designed to relate issues presented in GLTF productions to issues in the audience's lives. For more information and a list of production venues and times, visit the Great Lakes Theater Festival website at www.greatlakestheater.org or call the Festival’s education department at 216-241-5490 x307.
Check back in February for OhioAuthority's review of Twice Told Tales of the Decameron.
