"Two Bards with One Stone" - April 29-30, 2016

A Shakespeare Double Header (of a sort) at Spring Glen Church -- this spring the Spring Glen Theater Arts Ministry entertained us with two one-act comedies relating to everyone’s favorite 16th century playwright.

The Shakespeares, written by Colleen Shaddox and directed by the playwright and Dick Smith, presents the bard himself back in Stratford-on-Avon as his career ends. We meet his wife, daughters, sons-in-law and two of his old comrades from the theater. Each person has his or her own agenda for Shakespeare's remaining years. This play won the prize for best one-act play at the 2013 “Shakespeare in the 'Burg” festival in Middleburg, VA. The play was presented at SGC in the form of a staged reading, and was also performed by the Spring Glen cast at a pair of kickoff events for the Shoreline Arts Association 2016 Shakespeare series.

Then we move from the sublime to the ridiculous, specifically to The Hamlet Thrill-ma-geddon, written by Don Zolidis and directed by Nick Appleby. What happens when a local theater group runs short of money? They get corporate sponsorship -- with all its unintended consequences. With companies from Dr. Pepper to Disney all vying to get product placement in the play, you’ve never seen Hamlet like this before, and Shakespeare devotees will never want to see it like this again.

We enjoyed two fun and spirited evenings with the performance of these two plays at Spring Glen. Showtime was at 7:30 on Friday, April 29 and Saturday, April 30 in the Great Hall, with both plays being performed each evening.

Photos by Bryan Gillespie and Richard Davis

To view full video of both shows, click here (must be a logged-in member of Spring Glen Church)