2023 Shakespeare in the Park

PERICLES: Prince of Tyre

introduction by Theaterworks

Join Pikes Peak Library District as we welcome UCCS Theatreworks for Free-For-All: Pericles, directed by Max Shulman.

Theatre happens anywhere intrepid actors and audiences meeting. Theatreworks’ Free-For-All program brings Shakespeare to libraries, schools, community and senior centers, and parks throughout the Pikes Peak region.

Free-For-All shares a 75-minute PERICLES, a fast-paced journey of heroes, villains, shipwrecks, pirates, jousting, and more in a sweeping adventure that was Shakespeare’s most popular play for over 100 years!

• Parking
West of Library
North of Village Green –away from fire station
West of ball diamond across Hwy 105

• Restrooms inside Town Hall

• Weather: Show will move into Town Hall

• Theaterworks

• Free admission for all

• You can help…

2022 Green Box Arts Festival Sunday July 3, 2022. Photo by Jeff Kearney.
2022 Green Box Arts Festival Sunday July 3, 2022. Photo by Jeff Kearney.

Synopsis:

[from https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/pericles/read/]
[FYI, Shakespeare in the Park uses Shakespeare’s works which playwrights have re-writen for 75 min and for all audiences.]

The nautical tale of a wandering prince, Pericles is narrated by John Gower, a poet from the English past. Gower explains that Pericles, Prince of Tyre, hopes to win the hand of a princess in Antioch. When Pericles learns that she and the king, her father, are lovers, he flees for his life.

Pericles brings grain to Tarsus during a famine, but loses his ships and men in a storm. In Pentapolis, Pericles wins a tournament and marries the king’s daughter, Thaisa. With Thaisa pregnant, she and Pericles sail for Tyre. Thaisa bears a daughter, Marina, at sea, but apparently dies. Her coffin drifts ashore at Ephesus, where she is revived and becomes a priestess of Diana.

Pericles leaves the baby Marina with the king and queen of Tarsus. Fourteen years later, Marina, kidnapped by pirates, is sold to a brothel, but her eloquence protects her. Told that she has died, a grief-stricken Pericles rediscovers her. Guided by a vision from the goddess Diana, Pericles and Marina reunite with Thaisa.