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Free Shakespeare at Ottawa Park

The Harvest Theatre of Toledo presents a William Shakespeare comedy called The Taming of The Shrew.

This opened last weekend, and the final two performances are this weekend.

Bill Quinlan, the founding producer of Harvest Theatre of Toledo, said he was looking for a place to rehearse when someone told him about the Ottawa Park amphitheater. "I saw this beautiful, big space, and I thought it sure would be fun to do something out here," he said.

With a background in New York theater, he was very familiar with that city's Shakespeare in the Park series, so he decided to see how Toledo would respond to a similar event. The result is The Taming of the Shrew, William Shakespeare's comedy about Katherina, a wasp-tongued beauty, who is married off by her father to Petruchio, who seeks a wealthy wife.


Sidenote: I've seen Harvest Theatre productions at the Collingwood Arts Center and at a church in the Old West End. They are looking for a permanent home, so if you have a building that's not doing anything, contact HT. From the Harvest Theatre Web site:

The Harvest Theatre of Toledo is currently seeking a permanent venue that we can call "home" for future seasons. If you have any ideas or thoughts on this, please give Producing Director, Bill Quinlan a call (419) 902-0608, or drop him an email at bq@harvesttheatre.com

Ideally, we are looking for a space which is affordable to a not-for-profit group to rent on a "per show" basis (or monthly if the rent is really cheap!) and seat approximately 100-150 people comfortably in an audience friendly area. It doesn't necessarily have to be a theatre per se, but even a "found" space where we would have some flexibility in creativity would be wonderful!

We are considering working with another local theatre that is also looking for a home base, so there is a good chance that the site could be busy most of the year.

Any suggestion would be tremendously helpful!
created by jr on Sep 13, 2007 at 02:23:40 pm     Comments: 4

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tags: event   art   theatre   

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Comments ... #

jr - there's some empty space in the Merchant's Landing complex out here in the Point. An old Krogers store and such...that isn't being used or marketed...is this the type of place they're looking for?

this complex is owned by Larry Bush - not Krogers, btw...

posted by MaggieThurber on Sep 13, 2007 at 04:24:04 pm     #



They are also looking for an actor at the moment (an email from Bill):

Harvest Theatre of Toledo is still seeking that one actor to play a truly outstanding role in contemporary theatre.

We're looking to cast the role of Father Flynn in John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer Prize winning play "Doubt, A Parable". On Broadway, the role was played by an actor in his mid-30's, but we can look to either side of that if the actor is strong and fits the role in every other regard.

The play opens on October 18th and closes on October 28th. We are starting rehearsals immediately. If interested, or you'd like more information, please call Producing Director Bill Quinlan, at (419) 902-0608. Or drop an email to bq@harvesttheatre.com.

There is a small stipend for the role.

Thanks very much!

Thank you!

posted by jhostetler on Sep 13, 2007 at 05:03:23 pm     #



Wonderful! Can't wait to see it. Are events like this common?

posted by jshriver on Sep 13, 2007 at 07:18:03 pm     #



jshriver, check out my posting from January titled Local theatre action for area venues. I'll create another posting soon that covers the entire 2007-2008 season, which is already in progress. The Toledo Rep and The Village Players also started their season last weekend.

I've had the play "Doubt" on my bookshelf for a while, but I haven't read it yet. John Patrick Shanley wrote the screenplay for "Moonstruck" which I think is a pretty good movie.

posted by jr on Sep 13, 2007 at 09:49:01 pm     #