Youthquake Theater in Shakespeare's 'The Winter's Tale'

Youthquake Theater, the Boston-area youth theater company run entirely by kids and teens, presents its 12th Shakespearean production. The Winter’s Tale will be performed Friday and Saturday, June 3-4 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, June 5 at 2 p.m. at the Arlington Center for the Arts, 41 Foster St., Arlington. Tickets are $5. For information call 781-648-5579 or visit www.youthquaketheater.com

The Winter’s Tale has been alternately classified as a comedy, a romance, and a problem play. Indeed, there is a stark contrast between Sicilia, presided over by the tormented, jealous Leontes, and Bohemia, a pastoral land drenched with music, amiable shepherds, and young love.

The story begins with the jealous king Leontes, who imprisons his wife Hermione and condemns their infant daughter to death. Unbeknownst to him, his servant leaves the child in Bohemia, where she’s named Perdita and taken in by an old shepherd and his son. Fast forward to Perdita’s adolescence, and a young prince disguised as a peasant falls in love with her. In order to escape Polixenes, the prince’s angry father, the pair flee to Sicilia, where the action comes full circle, much like the turning of the seasons the play depicts.

Medford resident Abigail Dickson directs and acts in the production which also features Eli Nauda and Wini Nauda of Melrose, Oriana McKanan of Cambridge, Helena Cameron of Medford, Hayden Latimer-Ireland of Somerville, Elena Loomis of Belmont, Lisa Danielyan of Belmont, Polina Danielyan of Belmont, and a special cameo by Astrid Erickson of Medford as the bear.

Founded in June 2012, Youthquake Theater started with a random idea (let’s do “Hamlet” in the backyard!) and took off with a bang. Youthquake productions are organized, directed, and acted in entirely by children and teens. They focus on the works of William Shakespeare, and have presented productions of “Hamlet,” “The Tempest,” “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Macbeth,” “Romeo and Juliet,” “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “The Merchant of Venice,” “Much Ado About Nothing,” “King Lear,” and “Twelfth Night” at venues including the Arlington Center for the Arts, the Somerville Community Growing Center, Circle the Square in Medford, Monroe Saturday Nights in Lexington, Revels Spring Sing, Belmont Manor, the Belmont Senior Center, and Mystic Learning Center.

Youthquake founder and artistic director Abigail Dickson has directed and acted in all Youthquake productions, as well as directing two youth-led productions for Actors’ Shakespeare Project, “The Tempest” and “Othello.” Other acting credits include Mary Lennox in “The Secret Garden” (MIT Gilbert & Sullivan Players), Osric in “Hamlet” (Sea Change Theatre Company), and Witch #3 in “Macbeth” (Saugus Theater Company). This summer she will perform the role of Balthazar in Striving Artists Theater Company’s production of “The Comedy of Errors,” as well as directing and starring in Youthquake’s next production, “The Complete Works of Shakespeare Abridged” in August in Somerville.

In 2015, Abigail was invited to deliver a talk at TEDx Beacon Street’s Youth Day. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUaU9kdt9I8