Open auditions will be held for the Bard in the Barracks productions of William Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure, directed by John Ball, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Len Falkenstein, on April 28^th and 29^th at Memorial Hall on the UNB campus. The plays will be performed outdoors (in Barracks Square and Odell Park respectively) and will collectively run from June 21-July 7, with exact performance dates for each play still to be determined. The plays will be rehearsed intensively (mainly evening hours) beginning the week of May 5.

Roles are available for actors of a variety of ages. Auditions will take place from 2:00-4:30 PM on Sunday, April 28 and from 7:30-10 PM on Monday, April 29, with callbacks the evenings of May 2^nd/3rd. Those auditioning are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the plays beforehand. Auditions will consist of readings from the plays. Prepared monologues may also be performed, but are not required.

To book an audition, please email jball@unb.ca indicating your availability for the audition dates and any preference for date/time. Actors may be cast in one or both plays (if willing) at the discretion of the directors, but may indicate a preference of play (if any) when booking their audition.

Anyone interested in auditioning who is unable to attend either of the audition dates, or anyone requesting further information, can email lfalken@unb.ca or call 506 458-7406. Expressions of interest from persons who would like to assist with the productions in a musical or technical/crew capacity are also welcome. All members of the company will receive honorariums for their work on the productions.

Our 2019 season will feature new productions of two contrasting comedies: Shakespeare’s most magical and dreamy romantic comedy; and a gritty, urban play that is very much of our time.

Ten years after Bard in the Barracks first staged a show at Odell Park, we’ll return to the play we performed that year, the perennially popular A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in a promenade-style production directed by Len Falkenstein. As four young Athenians take to the woods with romantic designs on (or against) each other, the resident fairies start to mess with their desires and spark a deliriously spirited comedy of confused passions and shifting allegiances. When a group of “rude mechanicals” decides to rehearse a play in the same forest, the opportunities for transformation – and just plain embarrassment – proliferate. There is no play more suited to a night in the woods than this hilarious romp that’s about, well, a night in the woods!

This summer’s second play will be Measure for Measure, one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays,” to be performed in Barracks Square and directed by John Ball. Set in a Vienna whose absentee Duke has been lax at enforcing the laws regulating sex, this tragicomedy puts a strict deputy on a collision course with his own desires when a young nun pleads with him for her brother’s life. As he unexpectedly falls for her and makes a scandalous proposition, she calls him out and precipitates a crisis that the Duke in disguise sets out to resolve. If Shakespeare has a #MeToo play, this is it: sexual coercion, abuse of power, and the limits of justice and mercy are just some of the 21^st-century themes explored by this 415-year-old play.

Together, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Measure for Measure will run from June 21-July 7. Full details regarding performances and tickets will be announced in May, and news about auditions will be coming very soon, right here!

It’s been a great and very successful run for Bard in the Barracks once again this year, and we’re down to our final show! Cymbeline rides for one more time at 7:30 in Odell Park tonight, and then it’s all over for 2018. If you haven’t caught the show yet, you’ve got one last chance to see this rare and wonderful gem of Shakespeare’s later works. Feedback and response from our audiences to date has been ecstatic, so we’d love to see you out tonight.

We would like to thank our sponsors and funders–UNB, NBCCD, the City of Fredericton, Downtown Fredericton Inc., Valley Graphics, Picaroons Traditional Ales, and the Radical Edge, for all they’ve done to make our shows possible this year.

Thanks so much to all of you who came out to see The Comedy of Errors and Cymbeline and we’re already looking forward to 2019!

We’re taking the holiday off, but will be back for our final week of performances starting Monday. Our two final performances of The Comedy of Errors in Barracks Square (and also featuring our Picaroons Bar in the Barracks) will take place Monday and Tuesday evenings, July 2-3. Don’t miss this hilarious comedy that has had audiences smiling for the last two years. The temperature is going to be hot, but the beer will be cold, and there won’t be a better place to be for an evening of fun Bardic tomfoolery!

Then we will close our 2018 season with performances of Cymbeline in Odell Park at 7:30 nightly Wednesday July 4 through Sunday July 8. Audiences have been enthralled by this funny, wild, and wonderful Shakespearean fairy tale, unfolding in an exciting immersive staging amid the beautiful (and cool in the shade) greenery of Odell Park. If you hadn’t heard of Cymbeline before, we’re pretty sure it will become one of your favorite Shakespeares after seeing the show–as our audiences have been telling us!

Happy Canada Day, everyone!

Into every Bard in the Barracks run, a little rain must fall. We’ve had more than a little today, and with it expected to continue through the evening, Cymbeline’s court, the wilds of Wales, and even usually sunny Rome will be not so pleasant for either cast or audience.

We’re going to be back Friday night with another performance of The Comedy of Errors in Barracks Square, featuring our Picaroons Bar in the Barracks. And after a great opening show last night, Cymbeline in Odell Park will have its next performance on Saturday.

See you at the shows!

Our cast and crew are taking a well-deserved day off Monday after a busy week of final dress rehearsals and opening performances. After a great opening weekend for both shows, we’ll be back with performances of The Comedy of Errors in Barracks Square (featuring our Picaroons Bar in the Barracks) Tuesday and Friday at 7:30 PM (two of only four remaining shows for that play) and Cymbeline in Odell Park Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30. See you at the shows!

After a very successful opening night show on Friday, we’re back with another performance of The Comedy of Errors in Barracks Square tonight! Sunday, June 24 will be Twinbill Shakespeare Sunday, with Pay-What-You-Will (Shakespeare) performances of The Comedy of Errors at 2 PM and Cymbeline in Odell Park at 7:30 PM. Both plays continue through July 8!