![St. Louis Shakespeare Festival's summer show in Forest Park typically draws about 40,000 people per year. [6/28/20]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/ddc11fb/2147483647/strip/true/crop/7360x4912+0+0/resize/840x560!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fkwmu%2Ffiles%2F202006%2F0628_shakespeare_JDG_01.jpg)
announced it will return to Forest Park鈥檚 Shakespeare Glen this year with a production of 鈥淜ing Lear鈥� by artists of color.
The production will be the troupe鈥檚 return to live performance since after city officials imposed limits on crowd sizes to help keep the coronavirus from spreading.
Festival leaders are confident that Actors鈥� Equity, the actors union, will approve a coronavirus safety plan that includes outdoor, tented rehearsals and COVID-19 tests for the full company, three times a week.
City officials must also approve the organization鈥檚 safety plans, but Producing Artistic Director Tom Ridgely said the show will go on even if the city does not raise its present cap of 250 people at a public gathering.
The Forest Park performance space can accommodate more than 5,000 people; the festival鈥檚 plan calls for allowing up to 1,200 people per performance. Spaces will be marked off at the venue to ensure social distancing among attendees.
鈥淚t is exciting to think that by June we鈥檒l be at a place at a community level where it鈥檒l be safe to enjoy even modified versions of things like Shakespeare in the park that we all love,鈥� Ridgely said.
The festival鈥檚 Forest Park productions typically employ 25 full-time and 53 part-time seasonal workers. The total number of people employed by this production will be slightly larger, Ridgely said, because of new positions such as a coronavirus safety officer and personnel to set up tents and portable generators.
If all goes as planned, the production will be notable as St. Louis Shakespeare Festival鈥檚 first performance of 鈥淜ing Lear鈥� and as a show created and performed exclusively by artists of color, most of whom are Black.
, associate artistic director of , will direct the show. , who has won Tony, Grammy and Emmy awards, will star as Lear 鈥� an aging king who sees his country torn apart after he divides control of it among his daughters. It is considered to be among the most challenging Shakespearean roles.
St. Louis Shakespeare Festival presented a of 鈥淜ing Lear鈥� in 2018 as the centerpiece of its annual Shakespeare in the Streets project. That production drew parallels between Lear鈥檚 partitioned nation and St. Louis, a city often marked by social, political and economic divisions.
鈥淎 big part of Carl鈥檚 vision was imagining a world where Black people were in the ruling class and were at the center of power,鈥� Ridgely said of the upcoming production.
DeShields won the Tony Award for best featured actor in a musical in 2019 for his role as Hermes in 鈥淗adestown.鈥� He won a Grammy Award the next year for his participation on the cast album. His performance in a television broadcast of 鈥淎in鈥檛 Misbehavin鈥欌�� in 1982 captured an Emmy Award.
鈥淲e are in a global reckoning with where we want to go and who we want to be,鈥� Cofield said in a statement. 鈥溾�� is the current zeitgeist. For me, this chance to do 鈥楰ing Lear鈥� with Andr茅 in a bold, vibrant reimagining speaks directly to 13-year-old Carl and seeing brown and Black people at the forefront. To bring this story in this way to St. Louis audiences is something I鈥檓 tremendously excited by.鈥�
Performances of 鈥淜ing Lear鈥� will begin June 2 and run through June 27.
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![St. Louis Shakespeare Festival's summer show in Forest Park typically draws about 40,000 people per year. [6/28/20]](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/2481a88/2147483647/strip/true/crop/7360x4869+0+22/resize/260x172!/format/webp/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fkwmu%2Ffiles%2F202006%2F0628_shakespeare_JDG_01.jpg)