SEQUIM — Olympic Theatre Arts is expanding its yearly Shakespearean reader’s theater production into a full scale Renaissance Faire this year.
The festivities begin on Friday and continue through the weekend.
OTA will open the doors to reveal a lavishly decorated Elizabethan Hall on Friday and Saturday, beginning at 5:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 14, at 2 p.m.
Admission to the event is set at $15 per person for the show only but patrons will be encouraged to become fully engaged by partaking in the many other Renaissance Faire offerings before and throughout the program time.
These additional offerings include:
• Costume rentals: Dress the part by wearing period adornments selected for you by OTA costume designer. Prices vary from full dress to just a fun hat.
• Reserve limited seating as nobility: Revelers can set themselves apart from the rabble with special seating and additional perks.
• Food and drink: Refreshments of all sorts will be available for purchase throughout the affair from pickles to skewered poultry and from wine and cider to mead.
• Sonnets and slander: Shakespearean actors will solicit your shillings to deliver a sonnet or to humorously slander another reveler in the room.
• Jail time: Take an opportunity to send someone to jail (don’t worry, it’s harmless enough), bribe the jailer to put ‘em in, bribe the jailer to get ‘em out!
At check-in patrons will be able to purchase coins in $5 increments to use throughout the affair or register with a credit card and receive a special medallion to flash for purchase of any offerings.
“We have turned this event into a mini-fundraiser using a theme that we think will not only be a lot of fun but will help to make Shakespeare more accessible to more people,” OTA executive director Carol Willis said.
“This is a ‘soft start’ for an idea we’ve been brewing for a while,” event committee member Pete Griffin said.
“It’s a great way to take something like the Shakespeare production, that’s already popular in our community, and make it even better.”
As in previous years, OTA actors will be performing Shakespearean selections on a theme. This year’s theme is “Shakespeare’s Wit and Wisdom” offering glimpses of the more witty and wise passages of the Bard.
To make a reservation, buy a ticket or for more information about the event, contact the OTA business office, which is open from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday at 360-683-7326.
