Shakespeare Festival-St. Louis' Nancy Bell—the playwright-in-residence for the Shakespeare in the Streets program—has created a bit of a niche for herself, adapting Shakespare plays to specific neighborhoods. So far that's included Remember Me (Maplewood, 2016), The World Begun (Old North, 2015), Good in Everything (Clayton, 2014), Old Hearts Fresh (The Grove, 2013), and The New World (Cherokee Street, 2012).
This year's project is titled Shakespeare in the Streets: ONE CITY. Meaning Bell won't focus on a particular neighborhood, but all of St. Louis. The new play, Blow, Winds, is based on King Lear, and will be staged, as it was announced this morning, in front of the Central Library downtown September 15–17.
Nancy Bell is Using Shakespeare to Tell the Stories of our City’s Neighborhoods
“After focusing on specific neighborhoods the past five years, we’re looking forward to bringing the entirety of the St. Louis region together to ask ourselves, ‘What does it mean to be a St. Louisan today?’” Bell said in a press release from Shakespeare Festival–St. Louis. “The play draws from the whole city for its source materials. It also seeks to revisit the themes and the people from all previous SITS shows, so it is a broader, more epic story. This is the first time we’ve adapted a tragedy, so while there will still be a lot of fun and laughs, this production will also feature sorrow and loss.”
Bell says she was inspired by a passage known as "Lear's prayer to the hearth," in which the king meets a beggar, and is moved to empathy for the poor for the first time. She added that in the last year, as she conducted interviews for the production, she frequently heard St. Louis residents express frustration about "inequality, injustice, and violence. This project sheds light on what there is to celebrate in our city, while still acknowledging the problems we all face. Our fate belongs to one another.”
SITS is partnering with the St. Louis Public Library, and in addition to the theater production, the Central branch will present an exhibit titled We Are Shakespeare in the Grand Hall from September 5-November 4. It will include interactive displays and activities, a 30-foot mural, and a Shakespearean actor that visitors can interact with. There will also be programming a library branches throughout the city, including a story hour titled "Baby Bard." There's a lot more in the works, including lectures and workshops, that will be announced later this summer.
To track all the details as they develop, go to sfstl.com/in-the-streets.
