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Piedmont Shakespeare Company makes the Bard accessible

theatre sword fight
Ken A. Huth
/
Piedmont Shakespeare Company
Hamlet and Laertes fight during the Piedmont Shakespeare Company's 2025 production of Hamlet.

Piedmont Shakespeare Company is kicking off its summer touring production of Much Ado About Nothing.

The play itself, a comedy in five acts, is known for its relatability. Much of it was written in prose versus poetry, so it sounds like the way people talk. And it’s chock-full of relatable themes: love and loss, parenting and insecurity, jealousy and suspicion — a veritable 16th-century reality show.

Piedmont Shakespeare Company Director Carl Forsman says they want a wider audience to be able to access these themes.  

"The words were meant to be spoken aloud," he says. "They were meant to live and breathe in the space in, amongst, and between people, and by making it free and bringing it on tour all around the Triad, we're doing everything we can to make this resource available to everyone."

That includes an American Sign Language-interpreted performance in Greensboro. And there’s free childcare with reservations in the Gate City and Burlington. 

Before his arrival in the Triad, David had already established himself as a fixture in the Austin, Texas arts scene as a radio host for Classical 89.5 KMFA. During his tenure there, he produced and hosted hundreds of programs including Mind Your Music, The Basics and T.G.I.F. Thank Goodness, It's Familiar, which each won international awards in the Fine Arts Radio Competition. As a radio journalist with 88.5 WFDD, his features have been recognized by the Associated Press, Public Radio News Directors Inc., Catholic Academy of Communication Professionals, and Radio Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas. David has written and produced national stories for NPR, KUSC and CPRN in Los Angeles and conducted interviews for Minnesota Public Radio's Weekend America.

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