By Gary Collins/ne news editor

NE Campus will pay homage to playwright William Shakespeare in a month-long Shakespeare Festival celebration.

Ed Perez, NE assistant professor of music, originated the idea last spring.

“ The Shakespeare Festival is a series of event involving nearly the entire humanities division,” he said. “The purpose is to do various projects related to Shakespeare, and maybe we’ll be able to recruit high school students and people from the community to see a quality production.”

The Festival begins Wednesday, Oct. 31, with a production of Perez’s opera, The Happy Dagger.

For the opera, Perez developed characters from some of Shakespeare’s most popular works, such as Hamlet, Othello and Macbeth. The opera runs Wednesday-Saturday, Oct. 31-Nov. 3.

The NE drama department is performing The Complete Works of Shakespeare Unabridged in the NSTU Center Corner Wednesday-Saturday, Nov. 28-Dec. 1.

The English department will contribute presentations by faculty Frank Perez, Eric Devlin and Jeff Nelms.

Nelms will present his lecture on Shakespearean violence in The Bloodiest Scenes in Shakespeare Tuesday, Nov. 6, at noon.

Actors will perform The Blinding of Gloucester, scenes from King Lear, in NSTU Center Corner. A pizza lunch will be served.

Frank Perez will present Hamlet Opens a MySpace Account, followed by Eric Devlin’s Shakespeare’s Sex Comedies.

The first round of competition for a Sonnet Slam is Friday, Nov. 13, in NCAB College Hall 3-5 p.m.

“ The sonnet slam is open to all students,” Devlin said. “Some English instructors are teaching their students how to write sonnets in proper form, but they [students] don’t have to be in an English class to compete.”

The Festival will end Saturday, Dec. 1, with a Festival Day featuring performances by music, English, drama, art and dance departments.