Many residents of North Grenville and Merrickville-Wolford have come to know and appreciate A Company of Fools, the group that brings you Shakespeare in the Park every year. Outdoor parks have become a magical outdoor stage for their presentations over the past years, and Oxford Mills was just one stop on their tour around parks in the Greater Ottawa area and beyond. This month, A Company of Fools has been given the Awesome Ottawa award for bringing their production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream to parks in the rural areas this summer. The recognition comes in the form of a cheque for $1,000. And, this year, the Company’s tour extends to Kemptville and Merrickville.
“Our goal,” explains Alexandra Isenor, of the Company, “is to break down barriers between people and experiencing culture and art. One big barrier is distance and location. We overcome this by bringing our work to our audiences, and this year we want to go to four new rural communities — Merrickville, Navan, Kemptville, and Carp — bringing our total to nine parks in such communities.”
Alexandra is a local arts manager, director, actor, and creator, and the General Manager of A Company of Fools. This coming summer, the Company will be bringing Torchlight Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to our parks between July 3 and August 19. 2017 marks the 15th anniversary of Torchlight Shakespeare! That’s 15 summers of the Fools bringing fun, physical, professional and accessible Shakespeare to our parks.
Congratulations to A Company of Fools: those who have enjoyed their performances will applaud the award, well-earned indeed.
Awesome Ottawa is part of a global movement of self-organizing chapters forwarding the interest of awesome in the universe, $1,000 at a time. At each chapter, ten or so “trustees” each contribute $100 every month, and review short applications received online to decide on the recipient of the pooled funds. Globally, more than $2.6 million has already been awarded – $88,000 of that by Awesome Ottawa. For more information, visit http://www.awesomeottawa.ca.