By Heather Egan Stalfort
Historic Houses

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 university's Evergreen Museum & Library (formerly Evergreen House). The event is open to the public with a suggested donation of $5.

The evening begins with an open house from 5 to 7 p.m., when 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. Part 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 (third edition, 1608), The Merchant of Venice (second edition, 1600) and The Tragedy of Hamlet (1676).

At a reception in the Bakst Theatre, Philadelphia-based interdisciplinary artist Martha McDonald, the first performance-based artist in Evergreen's seven-year-old artist-in- residence program, will discuss her work in progress — a 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 Garrett by Leon Bakst and Miguel Covarrubias, and an original monologue.

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

For more information, call 410-516-0341 or go to www.museums.jhu.edu.

GO TO JUNE 25, 2007 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
GO TO THE GAZETTE FRONT PAGE.