A Salute to the Arts

The Festival introduces a new event on Sunday afternoons. “A Salute to the Arts” is inspired by the original Festival of Arts, which featured a variety of artistic endeavors including theater, literature, dance and more. In 2017, each week will spotlight a different art form.

Shakespeare’s Fool

There are songs in the plays of Shakespeare. Who knew? The playwright often wrote “song” in the text, above the lyric so there’s no confusion. The trouble is, even accounting for the genius of WS – like most songs, they don’t really grab you till you hear them performed by a singer. That’s to say: reading the lyric on the page is only half the story.

In the spring of 2010, Jason Feddy and his band met with local performance poet, actor and teacher John Gardiner to develop a performance piece of Shakespeare’s songs with modern, acoustic based tunes combined with speeches from Shakespeare’s plays.

The result is a fast-paced, off the cuff and energetic performance called Shakespeare’s Fool, featuring 10 songs and 10 speeches from the Shakespeare canon. The good-natured tension between the band and actors is unscripted and funny and the songs rock.