Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Shakespeare in the Park gets warm reception from Henderson audiences

It’s been a good year for the Las Vegas Shakespeare Company. The group has been breaking records and performing before pavilions packed with eager audiences for the City of Henderson’s Shakespeare in the Park.

The Shakespeare in the Park series was the first time in 24 years that the city had expanded its series into a four-Saturday, four-park tour.

The troupe performed four free showings of “MacBeth” during October. One show, at Lake Las Vegas, drew 6,000 people, breaking the record for the number of people at any event at that venue, with the exception of the Fourth of July, said Dan Decker, the group’s artistic director.

The 21 actors also performed “MacBeth” at River Mountain Park, Discover Park and Sonata Park. Each show drew 1,500 to 2,500 attendees, he said.

“We do Shakespeare the way Shakespeare would do Shakespeare,” Decker said. “It’s Shakespeare done right.”

Decker, who directed the group’s performances of “MacBeth” and adapted its text for modern audiences, said he’s found “a bottomless demand for Shakespeare” in Las Vegas.

This year, Las Vegas Shakespeare Company also performed in more than 30 middle schools and high schools throughout the valley, in an effort to expose kids to literature. The performances, Decker said, went along with what Clark County students were studying in class.

In adapting the text of “MacBeth,” Decker changed some aspects to make the play more relevant to modern audiences. Without changing words – only trimming – Decker said he changed it into a play about good and evil, rather than kings.

“We don’t understand the divine right of kings,” Decker said of modern audiences. “We do understand, ‘you killed my son. I’m gonna get you.’”

On Nov. 12, the company will start its season at Lakeside Theater, 2620 Regatta Drive in northwest Las Vegas. The group will be putting on three short plays: “Hamlet,” “Shakespeare’s Roses” (a one-man play Decker wrote), and “A Taste of Shakespeare,” which includes scenes from “Romeo and Juliet,” “MacBeth,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and “Much Ado About Nothing.”

The season will run most weekends from Nov. 12 through the end of February, Decker said. Single-show tickets are $40, and a “season ticket,” which includes all three shows, costs $60.

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