Shakespeare Birthday Bash

The Drilling Company (producer of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot) and Bryant Park Corporation honor the 452nd Birthday of Shakespeare and the 400th anniversary of his death with a full day of events in Bryant Park.

In the afternoon, beginning at 12:30 PM and continuing until 2:00 PM, the company presents its Shakespeare Birthday Bash with individual performances by company members all around the Park. The Natalie Smith Band follows with a performance of original songs written to some of the great songs of the canon. The public can participate in the third annual "Speak the Speech," in which spectators are invited to come to a microphone and read aloud a Shakespeare monologue of their choice and are rewarded with a T-shirt for their bravery.  In addition audience members have the opportunity for the third year in a row to inscribe their favorite Shakespeare quote—or any such message as the heart may prompt—on the Word Wall.

In the evening The Drilling Company presents "Deaths of Shakespeare" from 6:30 to 8:30, in honor of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare 's death. Drilling company members will performs great death scenes from Shakespeare's canon and lead the audience in a mock jazz funeral for Shakespeare. Plays excepted will include "Hamlet," "Othello," "MacBeth," "Julius Ceasar," "Romeo and Juliet," "Cymbeline" and "Richard III." The jazz procession, led by the Jambalaya Brass Band, will commence at 6:30 PM near the fountain terrace.