Laboratory Theater of Florida brings Shakespeare to Fort Myers

Artwork by Randy Kashi

FORT MYERS — On November 20th and 21st, The Laboratory Theater of Florida will bring Shakespeare to downtown Fort Myers, performing on stages both inside and outside of the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center, 2301 First Street. The entire family can watch scenes and full Shakespearean plays, and performance contributions will hail from all up and down the Gulf Coast. In addition, there will be exhibits and demonstrations and workshops including swordplay, costuming, language, humanities and the like, and activities for both adults and children.

Laboratory Theater artistic director and recent Gulfshore Business magazine’s “40 Under 40” winner Annette Trossbach received her training at East 15, one of Great Britain's leading acting schools. Her resume productions in the US, Germany and England.

Also head of the drama program at Edison Park Creative and Expressive Arts School, Ms. Trossbach's commitment to fine literature is apparent, as she trainings her students students to interpret, appreciate and perform time-honored plays such as the works of William Shakespeare. “This will be the chance to spend an entire weekend enriching our youth and adults of all ages, promoting literacy and the classics,” says Trossbach.

The Laboratory Theater of Florida offers the extraordinary opportunity to focus on illuminating the classics for today’s audiences. The company has chosen to be selective, investing its time on plays of both cultural and intellectual importance, by socially committed writers. Both new and old works are combined with method, technique, research, text and character analysis, and the final ingredient, expression of raw human emotion, is a key in a quest for truth.

A fresh, new generation of theatergoers have begun to fill the seats at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center. Among them are young parents whose children can be shown at an early age the joy and fulfillment of diverse theater. “Kids will really benefit from the creative atmosphere,” says Thatcher Long of Shine Salon, and Janet De Marco, of The Alchemists of Faux Finishing, agrees. “I’d like my child to take in the unusual costumes and fashioning of that period,” she says.

Annette Trossbach agrees. “And it is rare to find a program that trains young people in both modern experimental works and 17th century drama.”

Show and workshop titles can be found online through http://www.laboratorytheaterflorida.com

where you will also find a link to the rare and historically significant interview Ms. Trossbach was recently granted with the infamous playwright, Edward Albee.

This story is contributed by a member of the Naples community and is neither endorsed nor affiliated with GoNaples.com