The Little Shakespeare Festival at FRIGID New York, curated by Conor Mullen, is a celebration of independent theatre and performance that takes inspiration from the immortal bard, William Shakespeare. This year's theme is “Not Your English Teacher’s Shakespeare.”
Remember that English teacher you had? No, not the good one. The one that told you not to split your infinitives, that comic books weren’t real books and that kids say “like” too much. That English teacher. This year we’ll present Shakespeare that would make that English teacher tell you to “see me after class!”
The 2025 Little Shakespeare Festival lineup includes:
Anti-Gone
Created by Sivan Raz
Presented by Needs More Work Productions
Anti-Gone is a bold new adaptation of the beloved classic. Audiences take on an active part in determining the outcome of the thrilling drama, utilizing the most popular invention of Ancient Greece—the democratic vote. Is a happy ending for Antigone’s story possible? Will we be able to find what has not been found in 2,500 years—a solution? "Giving Antigone a sense of possibility after all this time.”
Hamlet: La Telenovela
Adapted by Federico Mallet
Translation by Jose Ruano
Presented by Something From Abroad
Hamlet couldn't possibly get more dramatic… or could it? Hamlet couldn't possibly be funny...or could it? Are Shakespeare and Telenovelas a match made in heaven? With Hamlet: La Telenovela audiences experience Hamlet like never before, with an adaptation that heightens the melodrama innate in the story and explores it under a farcical and comedic lens. We invite the public to open their arms to the extremely cathartic guilty pleasure that only Telenovelas (soap operas) can give. This show is in Spanish with English subtitles.
Measure for Measure
Presented by Elsewhere Shakespeare Company
What use is goodness to the spider? To whom does he pray? Elsewhere Shakespeare Company presents a punk fable about the profound evils (and absurdities) of being alive.
Two Households
Written & performed by Rachel Weekley
Directed by Zeynep Akça
Presented by No Exit Theatre Collective
Two gender identities, both alike in dignity, in the fair closet where we lay our scene. But wherefore art thou two? Using clown and movement work, Two Households reimagines the text of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet to explore queerness and gender identity through the allegory of coming out of the closet.
Tempestuous
Written by Mark Sage
Haunted by the spirit of his younger self, an aging country music star battles dementia in a secluded lake-side cabin. Tempestuous asks the question if the good times are really over for good. Ariel Chance Farmer’s daughter, Miranda, does her best to care for her father while nurturing her own dreams. All the while, the specter of the younger singer is a constant reminder of what is and what isn’t. Leaning heavily on Shakespeare’s The Tempest, this three-person play is a fresh take on the play.
Hamlet’s Dad
Written & performed by Rachel Resnik
Presented by Serious Play
Hamlet's Dad: Otherwise Known As The Daddy Issue's Cycle is comedian Rachel Resnik's magnum opus. A REALLY SERIOUS PLAY. NOT FUNNY. DON'T LAUGH. All five acts of Hamlet—guaranteed to solve your daddy issues or your money back.
UNSEX’d
Written by Jay Whitehead & Daniel Judes
Something wicked this way comes....This witty and raucous play takes audiences back to Elizabethan England to meet two boy-players as they fight it out for the role of Lady Macbeth in Shakespeare's new play. Both will do anything, anything to catch the eye, and affections, of the Bard.
The Mousetrap, or Prince Hamlet wrote a dumb play and now we have to do it
Written by Margaret Rose Caterisano
Presented by Broomstick
A theatre company on the way to their next gig meets two men on the highway. The two men talk the performers into following them to the capital, Elsinore, where they are pressed into service by the prince, Hamlet, who believes the king, also his Uncle Claudius, is corrupt. The actors grapple with the call of duty and discuss the pros and cons of speaking truth to power.
As You Wish It or The Bride Princess or What You Will
Written by Michael Hagins
Presented by Fork the Odds Productions
A Shakespeare parody of The Princess Bride! The fair maiden Buttercup is betrothed to the evil Prince Humperdinck, but she is forlorn since her true love Westley has died at sea. Before she can make it to her ill-fated wedding day, three thieves and a man in black will change everything, and become the proof that true love conquers all.
As You Will
Created by Conor Mullen, David Brummer & George Hider
Friends, foes, fools! Do you ever bemoan the fact that the 884,647 words William Shakespeare wrote have been performed already? Do you yearn for the experience of seeing The Bard's works for the first time? Then celebrate the glad tidings of As You Will and our Unscripted Shakespeare Show! These Shakespearean Scholars are here to present all the monumental works the immortal Bard would've written if he hadn't gone and died. With just the title given by the audience the players of As You Will bring a Shakespearean comedy to life complete with Shakspeare's themes, language, poetic verse and some scholarly footnotes thrown in for good measure. As You Will have performed such classics as "Eight Merry Spiders," "That Doth Not Go There," "1601: A Space Odyssey'' and though those shows will never be seen again, there’s always a Shakespearean world premiere in our makeshift Globe Theatre at UNDER St. Marks.
