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Georgia Shakespeare hopes ‘metamorphoses’ broadens appeal
BY JOE EARLE
joeearle@reporternewspapers. net
Officials at Georgia Shakespeare are
working to remake their venerable the
ater company.
Less than two years ago, Georgia
Shakespeare had to put out a call for
emergency help. The company said it
needed to raise $500,000 in just a few
months or it would close. Donors ral
lied and Georgia Shakespeare was able to
keep going.
But the crisis forced the Brookhaven-
based theater group to take a hard look
at itself.
“We needed a change,” artistic direc
tor and Georgia Shakespeare co-founder
Richard Garner said recently.
This year, as Georgia Shakespeare
opens its summer/fall season on the
campus of Oglethorpe University June
21 with a revival of the play “Metamor
phoses,” company officials are rethink
ing their business, and hope to bolster
the company’s finances by broadening its
operations.
“Going into this year, not just theater
groups, but any nonprofit arts group I
know has been saying, ‘We’ve got to re
invent the model, ” Garner said.
Georgia Shakespeare has entered into
partnerships with theater groups at col
leges in Gainesville and Ken-
nesaw, and plans to add perfor
mances with those to expand its
season.
“We definitely have taken a
look at our business model and
looked at it from all different
angles,” said Jennifer Bauer-Ly-
ons, director of company ini
tiatives. “We have this great re
lationship with Oglethorpe,
but we ... have to think, ‘How
can we get outside the walls of
[Oglethorpe’s] Conant Perform
ing Arts Center?”’
She describes the 2013 sea
son as part of a major transition
for the theater company that
was founded more than a quar
ter century ago. “I think from
the campaign in 2011, through
2012, those years have been
transitional, transformation
al, for us all,” Bauer-Lyons said.
“We’re right in the middle of it.”
One immediate change is
obvious. Georgia Shakespeare is
presenting fewer plays this year.
In the past, the company staged as
many as six or seven shows in a season,
PHOTOS BY JOE EARLE
Park Krausen, kneeling, and Travis Smith, on floor, rehearse a
scene from ‘Metamorphoses’ at Georgia Shakespeare.
Bauer-Lyons said. But it opened 2013 in Nothing,” and plans to present only
May with a “Shake in the Park” produc- three more plays — a revival of the pop-
tion of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About ular “Metamorphoses” in June and July;
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