Shakespeare: Unplugged

Part of the Lab's residency at Powerhouse Theare

Composed and Music Direction by Scotty Arnold Produced by Brittany Proia & Hannah Karp

Scotty Arnold’s musical adaptations of Shakespeare's All’s Well That Ends Well and Twelfth Night. In All’s Well That Ends Well, low-born Helen pursues the love of high-born Bertram. But even if she can overcome her station, can she get Bertram to love her back? A fun mirror to Taming of the Shrew, All’s Well asks: how far is Helen willing to go to get what she wants? Twelfth Night tells the story of Viola and Sebastian, twins who are separated in a shipwreck. How will these two survive on their own in a strange land, will they find their way back to each other, and might they find love of another kind along the way? Find out in this adventurous romantic comedy.

Arnold, a musical theater writer and five-time Powerhouse alum, dusts off these classic plays and boils them down to their essence, enlivening them with contemporary songs and music.

These pieces are from Arnold’s Tales from Shakespeare project, which combines Shakespeare’s text with narration from Mary Lamb and Charles Lamb’s 19th century book Tales from Shakespeare and Arnold’s original songs to create accessible, moving abridgements of all twenty of Shakesepeare’s plays that the Lambs tackled. The project was recently launched and has already received development from the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, Wayne State University, and the Hudson Valley Performing Arts Laboratory.