Wesleyan to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday

N.C. Wesleyan College will mark the 445th birthday of the great English playwright William Shakespeare with a fundraising celebration Monday at the Dunn Center for the Performing Arts.

The fourth annual Shakespeare Roast begins at 6:30 p.m. and will include dinner, music, scenes from Shakespeare’s plays, and entertainment by Shakespearean characters played by Wesleyan students, alumni and others.

One of the N.C. Wesleyan Player Alumni readers will be 1997 Wesleyan graduate Clay Jackson, familiar to many as the lonely Maytag Repairman who appears in TV and print ads in his blue uniform and cap.

An online Shakespeare Birthday Cake Auction will be held until midnight May 23. An assortment of “cyber” cakes will be on the auction block. Bidders may view descriptions of the premiums attached to each cake, such as tickets and passes for a variety of theatres and festivals, by visiting www.ncwc.edu and “Shakespeare at 445! Cake Auction.”

Tickets to the Shakespeare Roast may be reserved by visiting or calling the Dunn Center’s Belk Box Office at 252-985-5197. All proceeds benefit Wesleyan’s Visiting Artist Fund, which brings professional theatre artists to campus to work with students and enrich the life of the college.