Big show brings reduced Shakespeare to Fitchburg

The Reduced Shakespeare Company will present "Completely Hollywood (abridged)" at Fitchburg State College at 8 p.m. Friday, April 27, in Weston Auditorium.

The Reduced Shakespeare Company boldly goes where few would dare - Tinseltown. America's "bad boys of abridgement" take on America's largest export and go about savaging show biz.

Over the years, the RSC has created four stage shows, three TV programs, and numerous radio pieces. They have performed all over the world, at times having as many as four different touring productions on three different continents at the same time. The RSC is known for its fast, funny, and physical condensations of things serious - a style that members developed as a pass-the-hat act at Renaissance fairs in California in the 1980s.

The company has tickled funny bones at the White House, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, American Repertory Theatre, and countless civic and university venues. Internationally, the RSC has twice performed at Montreal's famed Just For Laughs Festival, many times at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and has toured extensively overseas in Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan, Israel, Singapore, Bermuda, and Great Britain. "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)" and "The Complete History of America (abridged)" are officially London's longest-running comedies, as they've been running in repertory since 1996 at the Criterion Theatre in the West End.

For television, the RSC filmed "The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)" which premiered on PBS and Canadian Broadcasting in 2001 under the title "Reduced Shakespeare." The company developed a sketch comedy show for "London Weekend Television," and has appeared on NBC's "Today," "Entertainment Tonight," CNN's "Showbiz This Week" and New Zealand's "Celebrity Wheel of Fortune."

This performance is co-sponsored by Fitchburg Savings Bank and Worcester Magazine.

T i c k - ets, $25 for the general public, $22 for Fitchburg State staff, seniors, groups, and $7 for Fitchburg State students and children under 18, are available at the college's box office or by mail order. For information, call the Weston Box Office at (978) 665- 3347 Monday through Friday 12:30-3:30 p.m.; information is also available by calling (978) 665-3709. The event is part of the college's CenterStage program.