Will Power

Imagine six Romeos and six Juliets in the immortal balcony scene.

Imagine a dozen Nick Bottoms recalling his "most rare vision" from A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Imagine Jack Falstaff as Jack Bauer in a Shakespearean spin on "24."

Imagine Hamlet's cat and Shakespeare's dog speaking to you from the Zilker Hillside stage.

Imagine all of the Bard's cross-dressing women comparing notes on playing men and his sweetest ingenues meeting in a bar to swap bawdy jokes and Elizabethan insults.

Imagine Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream and Caliban from "The Tempest" teaming up to lead you through a visionary look at Shakespeare's greatest hits.

And it's all free.

That's Will Power: Your Imaginary Forces, an original collection of scenes, speeches, sonnets, songs, and parodies that reflects the passion for Shakespeare and imagination that drives the Austin Shakespeare Festival. The creative energies of the entire ASF company have been brought to bear on this very special production, which includes Shakespeare's text set to original music by Austin's own Ed Kliman; a madcap duel between two of the Bard's fiercest swordsmen that manages to knock off Cleopatra, Julius Caesar, Hamlet's mother, Bottom the weaver, and half a dozen other famous figures; the wildest smackdown between The Taming of the Shrew's Kate and Petruchio you've seen; favorite sonnets and speeches from Henry V, Richard II, Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear, and beloved scenes from Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado About Nothing, and Measure for Measure reinvented for this production; songs and poems inspired by Shakespeare; characters from different plays interacting; and some very, very bad haikus.

Twenty-eight company members will take the stage in this production, along with a special guest each night. Already confirmed is Josh Watkins, new executive chef at the Driskill Grill.

Will Power: Your Imaginary Forces will be presented for five performances only on the Hillside stage in Zilker Park. As has been the tradition with ASF's park shows for almost a quarter of a century, the production is presented at no charge.

Will Power: Your Imaginary Forces will be performed May 19 & 20, Saturday and Sunday, 8:00pm, and May 25-27, Friday-Sunday, 8:00pm, at the Beverly Sheffield Zilker Hillside Theatre in Zilker Park.