The return of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot; happy No. 457 William!

In case you're making plans for next weekend... via the EVG inbox...

Will Shakespeare turns 457 on Friday, April 23. 

So on April 23 and 24, from 7 to 8 p.m. members of The Drilling Company's Shakespeare in the Parking Lot Company will mount "Happy Birthday Shakespeare-457" in the parking lot of The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center, 107 Suffolk St. at Rivington. 

Hamilton Clancy, artistic director of The Drilling Company, home of Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, writes, "It's essential to get our theater professionals back to work and to bring live theater safely back to the City. Who better to lead the way than William Shakespeare?"

The tickets are free but limited to 50 participants for each show. For them at this link. 

Per the organizers: Masks and temperature checks required; social distancing observed.

Shakespeare in the Parking Lot returns tonight in a new LES parking lot

[Macbeth photo by Jonathan Slaff]

After nearly 20 years of free performances in the municipal lot on Ludlow and Broome, the folks behind Shakespeare in the Parking Lot were left at the end of last summer without a home thanks to the incoming Essex Crossing mega-project.

Tonight, the Drilling Company begins anew behind The Clemente at 114 Norfolk St. between Rivington and Delancey. The season kicks off with a rendition of "As You Like It" and running through July 26. A production of "Macbeth" begins on July 30, presented through Aug. 15.

Find all the details here. The performances are Thursday-Saturday starting at 8 p.m.

Shakespeare in the Parking Lot has a new parking lot on the Lower East Side

[Photo from 2012 by Lee Wexler/Images for Innovation]

Via the EVG inbox this morning...

The Drilling Company's Shakespeare in the Parking Lot has found a new home in the Parking Lot behind The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center, 114 Norfolk St. located between Delancey and Rivington Streets, just three blocks from the parking lot where the cultural attraction started in 1995.

In 2014, after losing its space in the Municipal Parking lot at Ludlow and Broome Streets, the company engaged in a nine-month search for a new location to continue the 20-year tradition, presenting free Shakespeare for a generation on the Lower East Side. The annual two-play festival will now have a new home for its 21st season and into the future.

This year's productions will be "As You Like It," directed by Hamilton Clancy, July 9 to 26 and "Macbeth," director TBA, July 30 to August 15.

Shakespeare in the Parking Lot became a treasured urban tradition in two decades of productions in the neighborhood known as the Seward Park Urban Renewal Area, which is now giving way to Essex Crossing, a giant mixed-used development.