Check out David G. Schultz’s article on Twelve Ophelias:

Several months ago, Teddy Bergman got a unique script, 12 Ophelias (a play with broken songs), by Caridad Svich, from his friend Jocelyn Kuritsky. Ophelias is a series of scenes and songs in heightened language set, according to Svich, in a “timeless time,” depicting several characters from Hamlet in the aftermath of Ophelia’s suicide.

Bergman was intrigued by the piece. But as Artistic Director of the Woodshed Collective, whose mission includes the goal of creating “fully realized installation theater,” Bergman knew he had to find the right “site” for a site-specific production of 12 Ophelias.

When he learned about the possibility of producing the piece at McCarren Park Pool in Greenpoint, he jumped at the chance. The pool, one of a number of WPA-commissioned public park projects envisioned by Robert Moses in the 1930s, is a 4.5-foot deep concrete shell, with an area greater than a football field. When in use as a pool or, as Bergman describes it, an “urban beach,” the pool had a capacity of nearly 7,000 bathers at a time.

“Basically,” says Bergman, “the play is an image of Ophelia coming back out of the water to imagine how things could have gone differently for her.” The pool, he says, was “the only place we could have done the show…what was a symbol of womanhood has been drained.” The pool, which has hosted dance and concert events, has never before been a venue for drama.

There’s MORE! Check out the Feature at BrooklynRail.org