News Release

A reception with performance artist Martha McDonald, a display of rare Shakespeare folios and quartos and a public dress rehearsal of Shakespeare's The Tragedy of Macbeth will mark the seventh annual A Summer Evening at Evergreen, starting at 5 p.m. on Thursday, July 5, at the Johns Hopkins University's Evergreen Museum & Library (formerly Evergreen House), 4545 N. Charles St. in Baltimore. The event is open to the public with a suggested donation of $5. For information, call 410-516-0341 or visit www.museums.jhu.edu.

A Summer Evening at Evergreen begins with an open house in the museum from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Curator John Buchtel will show and discuss rare items drawn from the John Work Garrett Library that reflect the evening's focus on performance and theater. One of the university’s Sheridan Libraries, the Garrett Library contains a wealth of Shakespeare-related material, including all four Shakespeare folios and three quartos: Henry V (3d edition, 1608), The Merchant of Venice (2d edition, 1600) and The Tragedy of Hamlet (1676).

In the Bakst Theatre, there will be a "Meet the Artist" reception with Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary artist Martha McDonald. McDonald, the first performance-based artist in Evergreen's 7-year-old artist-in-residence program, will discuss her work-in-progress to create a unique performance piece inspired by the "Songs in Costume" productions staged in the early 1920s by Evergreen's former mistress, Alice Warder Garrett. Scheduled to debut in October, McDonald's performance will feature Spanish and Irish folk songs, handmade costumes based on ones made for Mrs. Garrett by Léon Bakst and Miguel Covarrubias, and original monologue.

The evening concludes with a public dress rehearsal of The Tragedy of Macbeth in the Evergreen meadow at 7:30 p.m. The show marks the beginning of the annual Baltimore Shakespeare Festival. Visitors are invited to picnic on Evergreen's grounds while enjoying the performance.