BOZEMAN - For more than 5 decades, Shakespeare in the Park has brought the bard's words to all corners of Montana and parts of Idaho and Wyoming.
This year's performance shares themes as important today as they were when first performed more than 400 years ago.
WATCH: Shakespeare in the Park opens free summer season in Bozeman
All this week, Shakespeare in the Park was hard at work rehearsing for the June 10 opening of “The Merchant of Venice.”
Shakespeare in the Park’s Executive Artistic Director Kevin Asselin says these performances aren’t “museum pieces of Shakespeare”.
Asselin said he is working to “extract those themes that he (Shakespeare) was so keen on writing about and bringing them here for today’s audiences."
” The Merchant of Venice" was completed in 1598, but Asselin says its messages still hold up 428 years later.
“Our goal, ultimately, is for us to walk away with a conversation about acceptance," he said. "The word ‘mercy’ appears in this play about 38 different times, so when you have comedic opportunities paired with the important conversation for what mercy means and acceptance, it becomes an incredibly complete play.”
Shakespeare in the Park opens Wednesday, June 10, at 8 pm next to the MSU Duck Pond with “The Merchant of Venice”. It will run for four nights.
“Much Ado About Nothing” will open on Wednesday, June 17, and run for four nights, also at the Duck Pond.
Following those runs, the Shakespeare in the Park team will take to the road for 35 more performances of each play in communities across Montana and into parts of Idaho and Wyoming.
The season will wrap up back in Bozeman in early September. Every performance will be free and open to all community members, just like it has been for the past 54 years.
