Saturday evening's performance of A Midsummer Night's Dream - the first production from the new Alchemy Theatre Troupe - wrapped up the first-ever West Virginia Shakespeare Festival (WV Shakes), and it was a resounding success!
The comedy was presented at Barboursville Park and it was a tremendous production, with an incredibly talented cast presenting the story of two couples in love (often with the wrong person), some conniving fairies who use magic spells to prank their loved ones, and a group of rough-hewn workers who manage to stage the most inept stage-show-within-a-show ever - but that production is also incredibly funny.
Presented in the lovely (and vastly under-used) Barboursville Park Amphitheater, the show was perfectly timed to wrap up just as the sun was setting, giving the proceedings a magical feel - and the mountains evoked the "woods outside of Athens" setting.
Hopefully this is just the first of many future productions!
You can see a gallery of photos from the performance by Sholten Singer (like the pic above) at this page on the Herald-Dispatch's website, and you can read also read this story by Megan Osborne about the production and the other events that made up the festival.
And today, festival organizer Mike Murdock sent out this "Thank You" note:
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THANK YOU SO MUCH for making the inaugural West Virginia Shakespeare Festival such a SUCCESS! We couldn't have asked for better audiences, shows or feedback! We can't wait to improve and make things bigger and better for 2019!
SPECIAL THANKS to Alchemy Theatre Troupe for doing all of the leg work and making something out of nothing, Appalachian Arts Collective & Alban Arts Center for joining us and creating and sharing their art with us, the city of Barboursville, WV, and the city of St. Albans, WV, for hosting us this first year and to Grindstone Coffeeology for being amazing in the clutch.
SUPER SPECIAL THANKS to all of the countless supporters, volunteers and everyone that worked on this project, from the performers and entertainers to speakers to artisans and more, as well as everyone that participated or attended any of the events. We could not have done it without you!
WE LOVE YOU ALL, and we CAN'T WAIT to show you what next year has in store! Be sure to "like" our Facebook page to be the first to know what's going on for 2019 and beyond!
SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!
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