An all-female cast of area high school students brings a special “Little Shakespeare” version of “Pericles” to life at Two River Theater this week.
Even as the all-male cast of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum continues to make merry on the mainstage of Two River Theater, the Red Bank institution’s black-box Marion Huber performance space gears up for a special presentation of a centuries-old classic with a distaff twist.
Running an extended schedule of school shows and public performances now through December 12, William Shakespeare’s Pericles offers an abridged version of the circa-1607 tragical history tour as the latest in Two River Theater Company’s annual student-actor project known as “A Little Shakespeare.”
Red Bank Regional sophomore Dixie O’Connell joins a cast of eight area high school girls — including Sophia Jackman of Ranney School in the title role of the middle eastern Prince of Tyre — for a production that’s been tightened up by returning director Jason McDowell-Green to 70 minutes, and condensed down from more than two dozen roles.
A lesser-known work from the Bard — a script whose authorship, long debated by scholars, will be discussed by TRTC artistic director John Dias in a special free “Shakespeare 102” event on December 8 — “Pericles” will be given a musically infused grownup staging at Two River in April 2016, while here on the threshold of the new year, audiences get an unprecedented number of opportunities to catch these young artists at work.
More than 600 area students are expected to attend the six morning-matinee school shows, while general-public performances begin this Friday at 7 p.m. and continue with evening shows on December 5, 11 and 12, plus 2 p.m. matinees on December 5 and 6. Go here for tickets ($20 adults, $15 kids 12 and under) and information on Tuesday’s “Shakespeare 102” program.
