South Florida Actors Offering a "Festival of Classics" Livestream from the Historic Biltmore Hotel

May 31, 2021

2 min read

Miami, FL

A group of diverse, classic-minded companies and college theater programs, are presenting narrated scenes from iconic plays and literature with inspired jazz and live musical cameos. The “Festival of Classics” celebrates the enduring impact of fictional and autobiographical literature from Shakespeare to contemporary era ‘Diary of Anne Frank.’

Two preceding outdoor Festival of Classic (FOC ) events occurred in 2020 during the pandemic in historical downtowns and gallery gardens in South Florida featuring twenty professional, student and emerging artists.

The newest incarnation of “Festival of Classics,” is a livestream event from GableStage in Coral Gables from the Historic Biltmore Hotel on June 5th at 2:00 pm EST. This iteration of FOC features an ensemble cast of twenty five professional actors, recent graduates and students from Miami-Dade County’s prominent universities.

The producing directors (all from Broward County) of Shakespeare Troupe Incorporated, Grace Arts Center, the Joseph Papp Yiddish Theatre with Miami-Dade College Theater program, What If Works (and FIU Theater College of Communication Architecture + Arts) and graduates of University of Miami Theater Arts program represent the ensemble cast. The production features a narration team introducing ten (10) scenes celebrating the bridge between academia and professional theater life and cultivates appreciation for the classics.

“Festival of Classics” will be recorded live at GableStage and streamed to an online audience from social media platforms Facebook and YouTube via the participating companies’ channels. Participants can visit the Grace Arts FL Facebook Event Page of the same name Festival of Classics for more information.

Livestreaming will begin at 1:55 pm on June 5, 2021 for a 2 o’clock start and will run for approximately 90 minutes as performers exit and enter the stage and enact short scenes and speeches from the classics.

Selections from Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Diary of Anne Frank will be performed as well as a contemporary interpretation of the production Red Velvet, based on the real life story of Ira Aldridge, an African American actor and playwright who was performing on European stages in the early 19th century.