New Hampshire's Fall Festival of Shakespeare

SANDWICH — The inaugural performance of the New Hampshire Fall Festival of Shakespeare will be on Saturday, Nov. 9, at 7 p.m. in Plymouth State University's Smith Recital Hall at the Silver Center of the Arts. The performance of 'Romeo & Juliet' will be the culmination of the soft launch of the program.

Based on the nationally-acclaimed program model developed by Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Mass., the New Hampshire Fall Festival program was tailored to suit the Lakes and Mountain regions. Advice To The Players has partnered with Plymouth State University to launch the program, led this year by five directors representing professional theatre artists and high school teachers, including Jessie Chapman, Andrew Codispoti, Will Johnston, Lucy Randall-Tapply, and Stephanie Wiencek. Students have worked with professional theatre artists both on stage and behind the scenes. Plymouth State University senior Jeanmarie LaPointe is costuming the program.

Two groups of students from eight towns are uniting to perform 'Romeo & Juliet.' Since September, Newfound Regional High School and the Sandwich Cobble, consisting of homeschooled and public school students who rehearse at the Sandwich Town Hall Theater, have been discovering their voices through Shakespeare's text. Students from the two groups met during the Sandwich Fair parade, and to build the set and tie-dye their festival tee-shirts.

Funding for this inaugural year was raised at Advice To The Players' 20th anniversary gala. Additional schools will have the opportunity to join the festival in 2020. For more information on Advice To The Players, visit AdviceToThePlayers.org. For tickets, visit PlymouthStateTickets.com.