Shakespeare by the Sea, Halifax
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shakespeare by the Sea is a theatre company in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Founded in 1994, it specialises in performing the works of William Shakespeare. Plays are performed outdoors in an amphitheatre formed by the ruins of the Cambridge Battery, an old military battery in Point Pleasant Park, as well as at the Seawalk Stage at the Nova Scotia Casino. They are funded by the government (particularly Nova Scotia Tourism & Culture) and private enterprise. Their main source of revenue is from patrons' donations, which makes up about 70% of their revenues.
The company was formed by the late Patrick Christopher-Carter (1945-2005), his life-long partner Elizabeth Murphy, and Jean Morpurgo. It has played every year in the park, performing on average four plays, usually by Shakespeare, every summer.
In 1999, a family show was added to the repertoire using a theme from a classical tale. The tale is edited and improvised by the director and the cast to include references to modern pop-culture and geography. The family show is known for its lack of props, with only Styrofoam pool noodles being used to create such objects as hungry lobsters and talking magic mirrors. In the summer of 2005, the company went away from the Pool Noodle concept and transformed the family show into a musical, directed by Jesse MacLean, with music written by actor Jeremy Hutton and lyrics by Hutton, MacLean, William Foley, Kevin MacPherson, and Kate Smith titled The Adventures of Robin Hood. The show has since received a workshop production at the Toronto Youth Theatre, directed by Hutton, with new music and lyrics by Hutton and Keiran MacMillan. The company is actively planning another staging of Robin Hood, due to success of it's two intitial runs.
In 2005, the Canada Day performance was The Midnight Twelfth Night, which began at midnight and concluded with the marriage of founders Patrick Christopher-Carter and Elizabeth Murphy. In 2006 Elizabeth Murphy and Jennie Raymond formed a co-artistic directorship to steer the company through a transitional year. In 2007, Elizabeth Murphy took over as Artistic Director.
In some years a one-of peripatetic performance is staged, using various local, historic sites and batteries as dramatic settings for the play. To date, the company has performed Hamlet at the Prince of Wales Martello Tower twice, Richard III at the Sir Sandford Fleming Tower and at the Halifax Citadel, Henry V at the Halifax Citadel, King Lear at the Halifax Citadel, Julius Caesar in the historic courthouse on Spring Garden Road and Measure for Measure at the Prince of Wales Martello Tower.
