Montgomery College to Host WillPower! Festival April 20-24

-- Festival Celebrates the World of Commedia dell’Arte and William Shakespeare with Workshops, Master Classes, Lectures and Performances.

Montgomery College’s annual WillPower! festival returns this spring, April 20-24, with a lineup of thought-provoking workshops, performances and lectures. All workshops and lectures are free and open to the public.

This year, for the first time, the week-long event will celebrate both Shakespeare and Commedia dell’Arte—an art form of the Italian Renaissance featuring broad physical comedy and fun, irreverent, brassy characters, recognizable in today's sitcoms and rom-coms.

Festival highlights include stage combat workshops with actor and stuntman, Craig Lawrence; and improvisation workshops with Mark Chalfant, artistic director of the Washington Improv Theatre. A full schedule of WillPower! events can be found online here.

Matthew R. Wilson, artistic director of the Faction of Fools Theatre, will deliver the Adrienne Webber Memorial Lecture titled Fools Cash In!: Classic Cliché’s and the Rise of Modern Comedy.

The Faction of Fools Theatre will present Servant of Two Masters. Disguised lovers, tricky servants and well-meaning parents cross and double-cross one another along the canals of Venice in Carlo Goldoni’s slapstick filled, comic gem. Shows will take place Wednesday April 22 through Saturday April 25 at 8 p.m.; and Sunday April 26 at 2 p.m. at the Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center on the Rockville Campus. Tickets are $10; discounts are available for seniors and students. For tickets and more information about the performance, click here.

Support for WillPower! is generously provided by the Webber Family Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Montgomery College Divisions of Fine, Performing, and Visual Arts and the Humanities. For more information, contact Prof. KenYatta Rogers at kenyatta.rogers@montgomerycollege.edu or 240-567-4001 or Prof. Rachael Wilson at rachael.wilson@mongomerycollege.edu

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Montgomery College is a public, open admissions community college with campuses in Germantown, Rockville, and Takoma Park/Silver Spring, plus workforce development/continuing education centers and off-site programs throughout Montgomery County, Md. The College serves nearly 60,000 students a year, through both credit and noncredit programs, in more than 130 areas of study.