Free (and Clothing-Free) Shakespeare Coming to Prospect Park This September

PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN — More than 400 years after they were written, William Shakespeare's plays continue inspiring new interpretations and representations. One such effort is coming to Prospect Park this September: an all-female production of The Tempest, with many actors performing au naturel.

Put on by Torn Out Theater and The Outdoor Co-ed Topless Pulp Fiction Appreciation Society (their slogan: "Burn Bras, Not Books"), the work went up in Central Park in May, receiving significant attention.

Prospect Park's four free productions will take place on Sep. 7-10 at the Musical Pagoda. The curtain will rise at 5:30 p.m. each day.

"In nearly all of his plays, Shakespeare touched in one way or another on the collision between old and new, ordinary and radical," said Pirt Strait, who is directing the production. "The Tempest will always speak to an audience ready for new ideas. We hope our audience will leave our Tempest as transformed as our characters."

Those in the Appreciation Society regularly gather to read literature topless, as is permitted by New York law, and their Shakespearean exploits combine a search for personal freedom with a particular artistic vision.

"You have to do naked for something other than shock value," actress Kara Lynn, who has been in past productions, told the website Salon. "We live in New York City. Weirder things happen all the time."

The content of the play, she continued — set on a isolated island and filled with magic and illusion — lends itself to an uncommon performance.

"These castaways, people from this other world coming to this natural place, and feeling free enough to shed their old-world values — this is something everybody can relate to."

Image at top courtesy of Matt Brown/Flickr