If you’re in Clark Park later this week keep an eye out for new benches inscribed with Charles Dickens quotes set to be installed between Wednesday morning (July 23) and Friday (July 25). A total of six new benches will be placed around the park.

Speaking of seating, new orange chairs are also on the way. The Friends of Clark Park voted during its annual members meeting last week to order 20 new chairs to replace damaged or missing chairs. The chairs cost $50 a piece and many have worn out since the experiment to place the movable chairs and tables in the park began in 2011. Despite initial doubts, the chairs and tables have been a huge success.

Members also voiced concerns about the growing amount of trash in the park, particularly overflowing garbage and recycling bins. Right now a seasonal city employee bags the trash on week days and the University of the Sciences picks up the recycling once a week. Also, event organizers and food trucks sometimes bring bins. Increasingly heavy use of the park in the summer – everything from large events to birthday parties and food trucks –  has resulted in more trash.

This seems like a good time to mention events coming at the park this month:

• The Awesome Fest continues this Thursday with Jingle Bell Rocks!, a wacky documentary on underground and alternative Christmas music.
• Shakespeare in Clark Park kicks off next Wednesday (July 30) at 7 p.m. in the bowl.

Henry IV cast members: Marla Burkholder, Brian Ratcliffe, Brian Anthony Wilson and Jennifer Kidwell. (Photo by Jen Cleary/Shakespeare in Clark Park Facebook page)

The awesome people who bring Shakespeare plays to Clark Park every summer have prepared something of epic proportions this year. Shakespeare in Clark Park (SCP) is teaming up with Team Sunshine Performance Corporation (TSPC) for an unprecedented collaboration featuring a five-night production of Shakespeare’s HENRY IV, intimate pre-show events at the Gojjo and a nightly conversation station in the park.

The play, titled HENRY IV: YOUR PRINCE AND MINE, combines aspects of both Henry IV: Parts 1 and 2, and features a community army of over 100 soldiers, selected during a multi-month open call. The army encompasses a diverse array of folks, ranging in age from 13-59, and representing 36 neighborhoods. The production also stars leading performers of stage and film including Brian Anthony Wilson, Charlie DelMarcelle, and Brian Ratcliffe, and is directed by TSPC’s Co-Founder and Resident Director, Alex Torra.

The shows are scheduled for July 30 – August 3, beginning at 7 p.m. Continue Reading

Practicing the battle cry. (Photo from the Team Sunshine Performance Corporation’s website).

Fancy taking part in an epic battle in Clark Park on a sultry summer eve? This year Shakespeare in Clark Park is staging Henry IV complete with a battle scene and they need your help.

The Shakespeare in Clark Park folks are teaming up with the Team Sunshine Performance Corp. to recruit and train 100 volunteers to take part in the late July performances. Tryouts will be held during the weekend of April 5-6 and you must be at least 12 years old to participate (which unfortunately eliminates some of the kids who go at it with all manner of medieval foam weapon every weekend in Clark Park). Your commitment includes a half-dozen rehearsals and five performances in mid- to late-July and early August.

“Anyone who can learn and remember basic instructions, be outside in July, can get up to a light jog and can be enthusiastic about joining an epic performance should participate!,” according to the tryout invitation. “No previous performance experience is required.”

The tryouts are:

Saturday, April 5th, 10:30am – 1:00pm
Sunday April 6th, 2:30pm-5pm
Sunday April 6th, 6:30pm-9pm

For tons more information about tryouts – including an FAQ – go here.

Prospero (Catharine K. Slusar) and daughter Miranda (Hannah Gold). Photo by Annamarya Scaccia / West Philly Local

Last night, Shakespeare in Clark Park (SCP) opened its eighth season with “The Tempest” at the “Bowl” on 43rd Street and Chester Avenue. The packed crowd laughed and reveled in the Bard’s majestic epic, which is directed by Swim Pony Performing Arts Artistic Director Adrienne Mackey and stars Catherine K. Slusar as protagonist (or antagonist, depending on your view) Prospero–a lead role typically cast with a male actor. And, without a doubt, Sean Hoots of local outfit Hoots & Hellmouth exceeded expectations with his ethereal and enchanted music.

Make sure to catch “The Tempest” at Clark Park before it closes on July 28. The remaining shows are on Thursday-Sunday, beginning at 7 p.m.

Photo by Mike Lyons/West Philly Local.

      Photo by Kyle Cassidy.

Stranded on an island with daughter Miranda for over a decade, Prospero, the overthrown Duke of Milan, ensorcels a wild storm to maroon a passing ship carrying passengers returning from a royal wedding.

It’s a prophetic tempest with a purpose–with the use of illusion, manipulation, and supernatural wildlings, Prospero plans to expose his brother Antonio as abject for supplanting his post, setting in motion the fantastical emprise of William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”

Come Wednesday, July 24, the early 17th century play will be the subject of Shakespeare in Clark Park‘s (SCP) latest production when it returns to  “The Bowl” at Clark Park for its eighth summer season. SCP’s “The Tempest” will be directed by Adrienne Mackey, Swim Pony Performing Arts artistic director and adjunct Theatre professor at Drexel University, and designed by veteran SCP thespian Bradley Wrenn (also Mackey’s husband). Performances of “The Tempest,” held for free at 43rd Street and Chester Avenue, will start at 7 p.m. and run through Sunday, July 28.

“‘The Tempest’ is different from anything SCP has tackled before,” said Shakespeare in Clark Park Artistic Director Marla Burkholder. “It is a magical fantasy that falls outside of comedy and tragedy. It felt like a good challenge for the company to move away from the strictly comedic works we have done for the past [five] summers as we move into the realm of the less known pieces from Shakespeare’s cannon.”

Under Mackey’s direction, SCP’s production of “The Tempest” will color itself outside the theater lines. While Prospero’s role is typically cast with a male actor, Mackey has brought in Barrymore Award-winning actress Catharine Slusar to take on the contentious lead, describing the Bryn Mawr theater director as “an incredible power house…able to take on the challenge of a character that is controlling an opaque.”  Continue Reading

The Merry Wives of Windsor in Clark Park. July 2012.

A fundraising campaign is currently underway to help bring more free Shakespeare shows to the neighborhood. Some of The Merry Wives of Windsor shows this past summer were rained out and end-of-performance red bucket donations were half of what is needed to make next year’s show possible. To support Shakespeare in Clark Park, please visit The Red Bucket Campaign page and submit your donation.

NOTE: The fundraising campaign ends on Sunday, 11:59 p.m.