Locales and People of Shakespeare Talks!

"Our City. Our Shakespeare." examines Chicago's special relationship with the world's most translated and performed playwright. By weaving together footage from theater, opera, dance and improv performances on Chicago's stages and interviews with civic and cultural leaders, theater critics and artists alike, it is clear that Shakespeare lives on in Chicago.

I was truly blessed, when I lived in Dubai, to have made Arab, European, Indian, Southeast Asian and Iranian friends.  So at the heart of Shakespeare Talks!, when I conceived it in this milieu, is the idea of adapting whatever talk I gave and whatever act I staged to the locale and its people and culture.  It meant engaging some of these friends to participate in translating Shakespeare, reciting on stage, and engaging the very souls of those people and that culture.  Whether or not Barbara Gaines and her staff, crew and cast at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater have ventured much outside the US, it is clear they share my vision and they speak to the rich diversity that is Chicago.