Shakespeare Club of Grafton returns for drama in September

It’s not all sonnets and flowery language. Reading Shakespeare means so much more.

Opening its 33rd season on September 13, the Shakespeare Club of Grafton invites new members to experience the joy of reading and discussing the works, life and times of the greatest literary figure of all time. Yes, he is the GOAT like Simone Biles and Tom Brady, but he was the first.

Meeting every second and fourth Monday each month, September to May, the Shakespeare Club of Grafton has met for many years at the Brigham Hill Community Barn on Wheeler Road in North Grafton at 7:30 p.m. Even COVID-19 could not keep the group from meeting via Zoom for all of the 2020-2021 season. The plays read and discussed included “King Lear,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” and the Oscar Wilde masterpiece, “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

At this time, it is uncertain if the Zoom meetings must continue for a while, but the club certainly will. Interested people should check out graftonshakespeare.org or email info@shakespeare.org for updates.

The 2021-2022 selections were chosen at the final meeting of last season in May at which new officers also were elected. The officers include Manas Sarma, President, Donna Coleman, Vice President; Cathy Thornton, Secretary; Steve Sardella, Treasurer; Mary Claire Ryan, Casting Director. The plays selected for this season are Othello, The Winter’s Tale, Macbeth and George Bernard Shaw’s Major Barbara.

The enduring quality of the Shakespeare Club of Grafton is that the club has participants from various walks of life so discussions are lively with interesting points of view being expressed. The job of the Casting Director is to assign roles to members for reading aloud and to ensure distribution keeps everyone engaged. Often readings are supplemented by excellent film productions or excerpts which add depth to presentations. Members are hoping to return once again to attending live productions at Lenox’s Shakespeare & Company or other local venues. Occasionally, guest speakers are invited to inform and enlighten.

“The Play’s the Thing,” naturally, is the club’s motto. Join in the experience of the 2021-2022 season. As Will wrote in As You Like It, “All the world’s a stage; and all the men and women merely players. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts.”

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