Poor Yorick’s Players, a nonprofit Shakespeare company based out of the Tall Trees Amphitheater in Monroeville, is presenting its first Virtual Shakespeare Challenge from Aug. 14-20.
Clues will be posted on the theater company’s website nightly at 8. Participants’ scores in the trivia contest will be based on correctness and quickness.
The challenge is free, and people can work in teams of any size to email answers.
“We have been able to thrive as a theater company for 15 years due to the support of our community,” Poor Yorick’s Players posted on Facebook. “Times being what they are, we’d like to give back.”
Julie Babal, a founding board member and treasurer of the group, said prizes will be gift cards purchased from local businesses.
“We wanted it to be so good that people thought, ‘What’s the catch?’” said Babal, a Pitcairn resident.
The first-place team will receive $200 worth of gift cards, with second place claiming $100 in gift cards. Both the third-place team and a “challenge-accepted” prize will receive $50 in gift cards.
“We’re hoping to get a lot of people involved and give people a distraction right now,” Babal said. “One of the major roles of the arts is morale.”
Poor Yorick’s Players typically presents outdoor Shakespeare performances in June and August. Its 2020 season was canceled because of the pandemic.
As replacement for the lost season, the theater company on Aug. 21 will premiere its digital performance of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” Actors from the region and across the world participated via Zoom for the recorded production, reworked and set in 2020 during the pandemic. The film will be shown on YouTube and Facebook.
