Comin' soon to BST: A dotcom billionaire with an agenda offers a cash-strapped regional theatre a huge chunk o’ change to ‘translate’ all of Shakespeare’s plays into ‘friendlier’ English. In Brian Dykstra’s coruscating, timely, and word-drunk new satire (written entirely in iambic pentameter) POLISHING SHAKESPEARE, it’s a rapid-fire, high-stakes, three-way tug-of-war between the billionaire (Steven Patterson), an Artistic Director (Yvonne Perry), and a struggling ‘playwright of color’ drowning in student debt (Angelique Archer). Ask anybody in the arts – we don't do it for the money, but we can’t do it without the money. Can scrappy little ‘theatre’, perpetually on the ropes even in the best of times, manage to stay alive without big infusions of corporate cash in these lean post-COVID days? What gets lost when the bottom-line starts dictating creative content and affecting artistic choices? Can our playwright hang on to her integrity, can the artistic director find some kind of acceptable middle ground, or will the wealthy executive wind up on top (as he's used to) yet again? All this couched in a torrent of Elizabethan word-play, dizzying alliteration, Dr. Seuss-style rhyme, and horrifying puns that’ll leave you gasping for breath and howling with laughter. It's headed for Off-Broadway later this year, but you can see it before that happens right here in Catskill April 17-27! Tickets now at bridgest.org/polishing-shakespeare/ Or even better, get a discount Pass good for all 5 shows in our regular Mainstage Season! Details at bridgest.org/season-2025/
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