Shakespeare in Yosemite
Yosemite National Park, California, USA
Directors: Katherine Steele Brokaw and Paul Prescott
Shakespeare in Yosemite features approximately 20 participants each year, and shows to over 1000 audience members annually (and growing).
This mini festival, founded in 2017, offers free, outdoor, site-specific adaptations of Shakespeare’s productions every April for visitors to Yosemite National Park, California. The festival is offered in celebration of Earth Day and Shakespeare’s birthday and is a collaboration between the National Park Service and our home institutions of University of California Merced, and University of Warwick.
We co-founded the project as a way to apply Shakespeare to the crises of environmental disaster and the exploitation of public and native lands.The shows feature and are co-created by students, local community actors, a few professionals, and – crucially – have a range of inputs from park rangers and staff.
Shakespeare in Yosemite applies place-based Shakespearean theatre in the heart of Yosemite Valley to foreground themes relating to ecological crisis and to prompt individual and collective action in its audience.
Performance Video
Links
Director Interview: Katherine Steele Brokaw and Paul Prescott
Imogen in the Wild: Music Videos
Imogen in the Wild: Film Trailer
Imogen in the Wild: Previews, part 1
Imogen in the Wild: Previews, part 2
Film Release Updates (November 2021)
Educational Resources on Imogen in the Wild
Staging Experiment: the Burial of Fidele
Company Interview: Sofia Andom (Imogen)
Company Interview: Sofia Andom (Imogen) and Angel Nuñez (Arviragus)
Company Interview: Dennis Lee Brown (Cymbeline) and Rachel Battisti (Celia)
Company Interview: Tonatiuh Dwayne Newbold (Leonatus)
Company Interview: Chase Brantley (Cloten)
Company Interview: William Wolfgang (Production Manager)
Company Interview: Scott Gediman (Yosemite National Park)
Company Interview: Jamie Richards (Yosemite National Park)
Company Interview: Rena Johnson (Music)
Company Interview: Cathryn Flores (Music)
Company Interview: Brandon Cooper (Post-Production)
Company Interview: Rilee Hoch (Post-Production)
Soundtrack: Fidele’s Burial Song
Film Review by Randall Martin, part 1