An Evening with William Shakespeare

“O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?”

…not exactly. On Dec. 6, curtains will lift and stage lights dim as graduate students from UF's English department perform “An Evening with William Shakespeare” at the Acrosstown Repertory Theater, 619 S. Main St. From scandals to sonnets, “An Evening with William Shakespeare” will reenact vintage Shakespearean literature from old English to the youthful Western world.

“We will be doing scenes from various plays, as well as the sonnets,” says UF professor Sidney Homan, the director. “Scenes of romantic love, distorted love (the Macbeths), comic love (Pyramus and Thisby from a Midsummer’s Night Dream) and the loveless (Richard III).”

The performance includes 11 graduate students from the English department, who are currently enrolled in a Shakespearean literature course.

“We've been working on it all semester,” Sidney said. “We are expecting an audience where ages range from teenager, high school students to the very old.”

Attendees should be prepared for some daggers, poisoned wine and sword fighting during this one-night-only event. And if one thing is for certain, romance will be in the air.

“One audience member called a past production ‘a Whitman Sampler of Shakespeare,’ so if you don't care for one piece of candy (one scene) there are always other and different ones,” Sidney says.

The performance will begin at 8pm and tickets will be available to purchase for $5 at the door.

-Alisha Kinman

Become a Book Worm

Chris Bachelder, author

This month, MFA@FLA—the creative writing program at UF—presents the 2009 MFA@FLA Writers’ Festival and features talks and readings from a variety of authors and poets in local libraries. Chris Tusa, who earned his MFA in poetry from UF and debuted his poetry collection Haunted Bones in 2006 and his novel Dirty Little Angels in 2009, will speak tonight, (Nov. 12) at 7:30pm at the Alachua County Public Library downtown.

Chris Adrian, pediatrician and author

Along with the novels Bear v. Shark and U.S.!, Chris Bachelder authored the e-book Lessons in Virtual Photography, and will speak tomorrow (Nov. 13) at Smathers Library East at 8pm with C.D. Wright, whose poetry collection includes Deepest Come Shining, Tremble, Just Whistle and String Light (and is the only one without a degree from UF). Writer and pediatrician Chris Adrian, author of Gob’s Grief, The Children’s Hospital and the story collection Better Angel, will be joined by them at 1pm on Saturday at Smathers Library for an informal talk, and will read solo there at 8pm.

The festival, more than 50 years old, is free and runs Nov. 12 to Nov. 14. For all the details, visit www.english.ufl.edu/events.html.

—Kate Ashby