WHEN: Beginning at 8 AM on 1/22. Another play begins every 4 hours until we close, at Midnight, on 1/28.
WHERE: The Commons Cafe.
WHAT: A community reading of the complete works of Shakespeare.
COST: FREE, Donations welcome.
Show up any time, day or night, to participate or just listen.
A rag-tag tag-team effort to read all 39 plays, 2 epic poems, and 154 sonnets by Shakespeare, back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back… during the day, night, dusk, and dawn. Whether it’s one line, one role, one play, or ten, we will need all the help we can get from our local Shakespeare enthusiasts, students of all ages, people on their lunch break, vagabonds willing to read plays in exchange for a warm place to hang out for a couple of hours, and kind souls the world over!
To claim a reading shift, fill out your name on this form, and follow the event on Facebook. Signing up to read ahead of time is not mandatory. Stop by anytime throughout the week, day or night, to read, listen or support! Join us on Zoom via this link.
Pledge $1, or an amount of your choice, towards each play we read. The proceeds will be donated to the Second Annual Viroqua Shakespeare Festival, hosted by Thoreau College and the Jones Classical Theater Company. Donations can be accepted in person during the Bard-a-thon, or electronically via PayPal.
The mission of the Viroqua Shakespeare Festival is to support the American theater at the grassroots level by creating a context for collaboration between non-union professional actors, theater educators, emerging theater artists, and actor-artists from local communities.
Auditions for the 2023 Viroqua Shakespeare Festival production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be taking place during Bard-a-thon week, from 4-8pm on Saturday, January 28th at the Landmark Center Theater, one block from The Commons.