Old Globe in Balboa Park. Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons/Bernard Gagnon
The Old Globe in Balboa Park. Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons/Bernard Gagnon

The Old Globe announced plans for free, touring productions of Shakespeare beginning with “All’s Well that Ends Well” to bring professional theatre to under-served communities in the San Diego region.

The Globe for All tour will present Shakespeare in a variety of community venues including military bases, recreation centers, libraries, centers for the elderly, homeless shelters, and correctional facilities. The emphasis will be on reaching under-served communities and multi-generational audiences.

Old Globe Artistic Director Barry Edelstein will direct the first production, which begins Oct. 28 and will culminate in three low-cost performances in the Globe’s Hattox Hall Nov. 7-9.

“Since my arrival in San Diego I’ve looked for ways to share the wonders of The Old Globe with more and more of our city, and so I’m particularly proud and pleased to launch Globe for All,” Edelstein said. “It’s our core conviction that theatre in general, and Shakespeare in particular, are necessary to living a full and rich life, and yet we recognize that some in our city either don’t know about the work we do or cannot enjoy regular access to it.”

Southeastern San Diego, home of the Globe’s Technical Center, will be one of the areas served by Globe for All, with a free public performance at the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation on Sunday, Nov. 2.

Audiences for the tour will be offered a one-hour pre-show workshop, with Globe teaching artists introducing Shakespeare’s language, themes, characters, and stories to familiarize audiences—some of whom will have had little previous experience with the Bard—with what to expect.

The Tony Award-winning Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional regional theatres

Chris Jennewein is Editor & Publisher of Times of San Diego.