Shakespeare missing from Tahoe festival

By Forrest Hartman, Reno Gazette-Journal

For the first time in its 38-year history, Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival will run a season without a play penned by William Shakespeare. That doesn’t mean, however, that the 2010 event will lack Bard-isms because he festival, running July 9 through Aug. 22, has built its year around the three-person comedy “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged).”

“Abridged” parodies all of Shakespeare’s works in notably condensed form, and the actors are encouraged to include at least some improvisation. It will run five days a week during the summer festival with the remaining dates — Mondays and Fridays — filled by concerts. The musical offerings will cover a variety of genres, ranging from classical to blues, and all shows will run in the organization’s popular outdoor theater at Sand Harbor State Park on the east shore of Lake Tahoe.

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