Four and a half centuries after he was born, the work of William Shakespeare continues to be performed across the globe, and Pittsburgh is marking the Bard’s birthday with a set of celebratory events.
Yvonne Hudson, artistic director with the art series Poet’s Corner, said they will be holding two events Wednesday to commemorate Shakespeare’s 450th birthday.
The first will take place at 12:15 p.m. on Forbes Avenue in Oakland in collaboration with Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks to have an observance, which Hudson said is a long time tradition “at the Shakespeare statue in front of the Carnegie Music Hall, we’ll lay some flowers and have treats for those who join us to hear a few sonnets and songs and tributes to William Shakespeare.”
The other event, a marathon reading of all of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, will take place in the evening at the chapel at Calvary United Methodist Church on the North Side.
“We’ll have some assigned readers and anyone who would like to read can contact us to sign up or receive a sonnet when they arrive to read during the event, and we’ll serve birthday cake,” Hudson said.
She said even after all this time, the Bard’s work is as relevant as ever.
“We find so much of ourselves in his work that it seems that not only did he create such amazing stories and characters, but he created a lot of what we know about the human condition,” Hudson said.
The evening event takes place at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
