Shakespearean Text Meets New Orleans Jazz

Shakespearean text meets New Orleans jazz in "Shakespearean Jazz Show: A Tale of Two Cities." The other city is Boston, where the idea for the show was conceived by Alex Ates, a recent theatre graduate of Emerson College and a native of the musically boisterous city of New Orleans.

Ates' idea was simple — take Shakespearean texts and set them to music. The result is a soulful, parade-like performance complete with sets, costumes, shadow puppets, and a 15-piece band of players from Emerson and Berklee College of Music.

The Shakespearean Jazz Show is being presented by ArtsEmerson Thrusday and Friday night at the Paramount Center Mainstage.

Alex Ates, conceiver, co-creator, producer and director of The Shakespearean Jazz Show.

Patrick Greeley, composer for The Shakespearean Jazz Show.

WBUR, "We use sonnets, songs, monologues, scenes — it’s all fair game. We took the pieces and arranged our set list into a loose dramatic structure, so there would be a progression to the material and the insinuation of a plot and story that the audience can latch onto."