The opening night of “The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged)” at Pioneer Place on Fifth Avenue was a night full of shirts with billowing sleeves, wigs, and tights, not to mention various props.

To start off the play, Dan Barth, the owner of Pioneer Place, stepped on to the stage and greeted the audience. According to Barth’s introduction, ”The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged)” is the play that opened Pioneer Place 13 years ago. Although the play is the same, the three-person cast is not, according to Zach Curtis, an actor in the new cast. The other new members are Lee Adams and Paul Reyburn.

The play summarized most of Shakespeare’s 37 plays, while others were merely mentioned by title or by characters coinciding within the mentioned play. Each of the three actors took turns with introductions to Shakespeare’s works and his history, even quizzing the audience on the extent of their Shakespearean knowledge.

The first play to be introduced was “Romeo and Juliet”. This play was given a short scene-by-scene synopsis. The next play to be summarized was “Titus Andronicus”. This tragedy is parodied by the representation of a cooking show where Titus kills his daughter’s rapists and turns their remains into pies. As a substitute for blood, pink silly string was used.

Many of Shakespeare’s plays in this performance have summaries with comedic purposes in mind, even if the Shakespearean play is a tragedy. For example, the play “Othello” had its plot turned into a rap. All three actors took part in this modern musical spin on “Othello” while multi-colored lights flashed above the stage.

About 16 comedies written by Shakespeare were summarized or mentioned in one section of the play that was performed as an old-time radio show. While many of the historical plays, like “Henry IV”, “Henry V”, and “Richard III” were shortened into a football metaphor with a crown as the football and the winner striking the popular Tebow stance.

Shakespeare did not only write plays. He also wrote sonnets. “All 154 [sonnets] are mentioned in one sentence,” Curtis said.

The play involved audience participation much of the time. Instead of beginning seating in row A, they started with Row C so that the actors would have enough room to run on and off the stage while interacting with the audience.

According to Adams, this play is his first at Pioneer Place, but he has been acting since his youth.

“I was given a choice to go to juvie or take an acting program,” Adams said, adding that he chose the acting program and “just loved it.”

Although “The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged)” is Adams’s first performance at Pioneer Place, Curtis said that this play is the 27^th production he has participated in at Pioneer Place.

According to Curtis, he has been acting since high school and has been the artistic director for the Paul Bunyan Playhouse in Bemidji, Minn., for six years where he works with Lee Adams.

Reyburn, who played most of the female roles, said that he began acting in elementary school in Moorhead and has been in several Pioneer Place productions such as “Chicago” and “The Full Monty”.

When asked if any of the performers would be attending the upcoming Shakespeare Festival in May, each member of the group said he is looking forward to it. Curtis said that he was especially looking forward to the performance of the original “Romeo and Juliet”.

“[The event is] fascinating … [St. Cloud] has a good arts community… It’s great,” Curtis said.

According to Pioneer Place, the three men will perform ”The Compleat Wrks of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged)” Feb. 10-12, 16-19, 23-26 and March 1-4 with Monday through Saturday performances starting at 7:30 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. on Sundays.