Bard to Go, a division of Grand Valley State University’s Shakespeare Festival and educational outreach program, will travel to Nova Scotia in May after being invited to perform in the Liverpool International Theater Festival.

Since 2006 Bard to Go has performed in several international locations including Jamaica, China and Italy. Bard to Go returned with the Best Performance award at the Sapperlot International Amateur Theater Festival in Italy last year after a vote of all other theater groups.

Bard to Go also regularly tours high schools around West Michigan, and while in Nova Scotia, the troupe will tour local schools in Halifax.

This year the company is one of only two theater groups representing the U.S. in the festival. Director of Bard to Go and visiting professor of theater, Ben Cole, called it a tremendous honor to represent not just GVSU but also the U.S.

“Companies from around the world, show their pieces and workshop,” Cole said. “The actors are extremely excited. It’s not … expected to go beyond the normal touring schedule.”

Every fall the group rehearses for a month then tours for a month during the semester, Cole said. After that it is a bonus to travel beyond the border and Cole said the students all jumped at the opportunity to go.

The theme the company has put together, Love Struck, will feature a compilation of scenes from Shakespeare’s catalog including pieces from “Romeo and Juliet,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and “The Merchant of Venice.”

The scenes have all been adapted to 1940s wartime with a specific emphasis on the representation of love. The costumes also reflected the time period with men in uniforms and women in flowing floral print dresses.

“It’s about the good, bad and different ways of looking at intense emotional relationships and the way the audience relates,” Cole said. “The effort is in making it visually stunning and trying to adapt the adaptable. Being a touring show, we never know what the venue is going to be like.”

Cole said the program, which is about 50 minutes long, is directed to be very audience-interactive and ready for any type of space. With respect to touring schools in Halifax he said he wanted to make sure the performers were ready for the various stages they will encounter.

Unfortunately, Cole will not travel with his students to the festival because of his work with a professional Shakespeare company. Professor Roger Ellis, whom Cole called a cornerstone of GVSU’s theater program, will advise the students.

“He’ll take good care of our students,” Cole said. “Seeing (them) at every different venue in Michigan they continue to impress me, and they’ll take everything we’ve created (here) and apply it in Nova Scotia.”

Professor of theater, Karen Libman, has been responsible behind the scenes for raising funds and support to continue Bard to Go’s activity as part of the Shakespeare Festival here on campus. Funding the seven-member crew is no simple task, and recently Libman has looked to gain corporate support.

“Bard to Go’s future, in terms of international touring, is really dependent on funding,” Libman said. “We are hoping to gain corporate or granting sponsors outside of the university. We would love to be the Meijer Bard to Go, for example. To date, we’ve received funding from many sources including the Padnos International Center, Multicultural Affairs, Integrative Learning at GVSU, the Pew (Faculty Teaching & Learning Center), the Provost’s Office, the School of Communications, the GV Shakespeare Festival, the students themselves and donations from the Shakespeare Festival Dress Circle.”

GVSU students Tom Gunnels and Gabriella Franciosi appreciate Bard to Go.

“As far as the arts are concerned Bard to Go is an essential to GVSU theater,” Franciosi said. “Adapting the classics is a brilliant learning device.”

Gunnels, who is a film and video major added, “It’s encouraging for me as filmmaker on campus. With actors developing their skills in these workshops it can only increase the quality of the talent that I can draw from.”

For more information on Bard to Go or The Shakespeare Festival visit http://http://www.gvsu.edu/shakes

[email protected]