Seed Money for the Frederick Franklin Shakespeare Garden

UPDATE 5/6/25- Fred is grateful and his heart is full by the support and love shown by his friends. The goal of honorariums for the performers has been met AND exceeded. Please check out the article about the legacy project in the Free Lance Star: https://1drv.ms/b/c/40c3dd221bb61927/EdWfhBlD9rtFkigxftzBjUIBn9L4w14wspr6ksVfnAhLLg?e=BZhzHk

Since fortune has been so good for this project, the parameters have been adjusted a bit to make the space even more beautiful. The new financial goal will utilize any additional funds to construct a HUGE retractable awning for our audience. Now, if it rains, or is too hot, the show CAN go on!!! Thank you for your kind consideration.

It has been said that the arts should be as basic as bread. To nourish that idea, longtime revered theatre teacher, Frederick Franklin, has established a Shakespeare Garden complete with a performance space at his residence, Cottage Casa. This is his legacy project.

There will forever be free presentations there for the public celebrating all of the arts in honor of his 38-year teaching career.

Bringing a blanket or lawn chair, up to 150 attendees can be accommodated. To see the transformation and evolution of the garden please access this link: Shakespeare Garden Evolution.

The arts are a force for entertainment, change, debate and truth- things which will be shared with area citizens and students as food for the soul. All arts events in the garden --which are places of beauty, rebirth, reflection and healing--will serve to continue to make a difference in the lives of citizens, just as his esteemed teaching career did. The Shakespeare Garden at Cottage Casa is the ideal and ultimate fusion of place and performance.

We are seeking seed money for the first performances. Although free to anyone, the performers deserve recompense. Once we have collected data from these shows, we can seek out grants and sponsorships for future events.

Check them out here: Playback Theater

Playback theater, a unique fusion of improvisation and storytelling, takes on an electric vitality when infused with the timeless themes of Shakespeare. In this dynamic interplay, Playback Theater Virginia, will present audience stories that are rooted in the universal passions of "The Bard"—love, betrayal, ambition, and redemption. They become the springboard for an evening of communal exploration. The actors channel the audience's tales and transform raw personal experiences into poetic echoes of intrigue, tempestuous longing with the influences of magic and the mythic world around us. Perhaps our stories will allow for Elizabethan archetypes to brush against modern dilemmas and the audience witnesses their own struggles as if they might have been written by Shakespeare. As he requested of our theater in its most essential form: let it be a mirror held up to nature, refracted through time, and brimming with the humanity that make our stories and the shared act of storytelling, eternal.

The Playback Theater Virginia will host a Shakespeare themed improvisation show at the garden on the Bard's birthday on April 23, 2025 @ 5:00pm.

This will be preceded by an improvisation workshop at James Monroe High School, where students in the drama program will experience what playback improvisation is.

Check them out here: Queen Charlotte's Villeins

They are not your typical theater company.

They are a repertoire troupe of players committed to studying and presenting the works of Shakespeare.

Each of the members dons a persona (their “Villein”), a self-designed, embodied variation of a Shakespearean “archetype,” which allows them to shift easily from role to role, in their personal wheelhouse of characters.

They strive to serve up Shakespeare as, in the best it is; sharp, vivid, alive, and comprehensible.

Whether onstage or online, they deliver bold, authentic performances laced with clever, bite-sized education—designed to empower you to not only better enjoy their shows, but all the Shakespeare you see henceforth.

Your contribution will plant the seeds of the very first performances in this very special place. Please consider not only contributing but coming on either or both days to enjoy experiencing them in the company of our very own bard--Frederick Franklin.