MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich.–The Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company, a touring company based in Grand Haven, Michigan, will make its first visit to Central Michigan University on March 27 for two free performances.

Pigeon Creek’s visit to CMU coincides with the university’s Critical Engagement program, in which the campus community explores a common theme with a variety of programming.  This year’s theme is “The End of the World,” and includes events that engage with the novel Station Eleven, by author Emily St. John Mandel.  In Mandel’s novel, a group of Shakespearean actors travel through the Great Lakes region after a flu epidemic has wiped out a majority of the population.

That’s where the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company comes in.  “We love this novel, and because we actually are a Shakespearean theatre company that travels around the Great Lakes region, we have had the opportunity to perform for libraries, book clubs, and schools that read the novel.  We have even made appearances with the author on several occasions,” says Katherine Mayberry, executive director of company.

Pigeon Creek will perform “Shakespeare and Station Eleven,” a program of scenes from multiple Shakespeare plays, with narration that connects those plays to Mandel’s novel, at noon on March 27.  The actors will then perform Shakespeare’s Richard III at 7:00 p.m. on the same date.

Richard III is a dramatization of English history, taking place after the devastating Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars which have left England in disarray.  Richard, Duke of Gloucester, aspires to the throne, and is ruthless in eliminating those who stand in his way.  Despite his villainous actions, Shakespeare makes Richard a charismatic and engaging character who includes the audience in his plots, making the spectators into co-conspirators.
Both events take place in the Townsend Kiva Theater in Moore Hall on the CMU campus in Mount Pleasant, and are free to the public.

For more information about the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company, please visit www.pcshakespeare.com.