By Joseph Adler, GableStageGableStage has been touring Miami-Dade County Public Schools with productions of Shakespeare’s plays since our inception. We estimate that we have played to close to 1 million students. Last year, we brought Julius Caesar to thousands of high schools, presenting over 40 performances around the County. Last November and December, we were privileged to present special morning performances for students of our main stage production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Red by John Logan.

Student Karina Pereira, 15, from Coral Reef High School, enjoys GableStage performance

In our 2012-2013 Season, we will be presenting Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in an adaptation by award-winning playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney (who will also direct) that was commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company. A Miami native and a product of the Miami Dade County Public School System, McCraney distills Shakespeare’s famous play down to its essence, transforming it into a sleek, 90 minute production, placed in a modern, multi-cultural context that goes straight to the heart of Shakespeare’s timeless tragic tale.

After a five-week run in our theatre, we will be taking the production to the Caleb Center and the South Dade Cultural Arts Center. It will run for one week at each venue–during which time thousands of MDCPS high school students will be transported to these theatres to see special performances of this incredible production. In February 2014, in collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company in London and The Public Theatre in New York, we will be bringing the first Winter Shakespeare Festival to Miami– offering free performances of Shakespeare’s plays that will be presented in rep.