Shakespeare goes to school

Tonight, it’s “tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow . . .” for the youth at the Omaha Home for Boys as the Nebraska Shakespeare Festival’s fall tour arrives on campus for a performance of the Bard’s “Macbeth.”

The play is not the version of “Macbeth” that audiences saw during the summer, although it features some of the same actors.

This production is a slimmed-down 75-minute adaptation designed to travel, according to the festival’s education director, Tom Lowe.

It will be the first time the tour has stopped at the Home for Boys. The tour, in its fourth year, will feature 28 performances at schools and communities throughout Nebraska and eastern Iowa.

The actors will be taking part in a theatrical doubleheader, having performed at Boys Town earlier in the day.

“Sometimes we’re looking at reaching out to under-served populations, here in Omaha and throughout the state,” said Lowe. “We look at broadening our reach.

“Every year we go to some of the same schools we’ve been to, but we also look at ‘Where haven’t we been before?’”

Last year, the tour performed before about 6,500 people, and this year’s tour should be seen by at least that many, Lowe said.