The National Endowment for the Arts will award a $50,000 grant to Chesapeake Shakespeare Company to support free performances in public parks and other community engagement efforts this summer.Through the initiative, CSC presents live performances of William Shakespeare’s plays, as well as arts education opportunities, in public parks and spaces throughout Maryland. All Shakespeare Beyond events are free and open to the public.In summer 2024, the Shakespeare Beyond initiative included free performances of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer’s Night Dream” at various Maryland parks.During that production’s run, CSC Associate Director Séamus Miller told Baltimore Fishbowl that public parks and outdoor spaces provide the perfect atmosphere for Shakespeare’s plays.“[Audiences are] also getting away from the indoors and their devices and our heavily digital, disconnected world, and going outside and having this analog, in-person, communal experience that can be quite moving and effective and helps us connect as a community outside together in the city that we live in,” Miller said at the time.For the summer of 2025, CSC will bring its mobile “Shakespeare Wagon” to more than 20 communities, from Baltimore’s Charles Village and Cherry Hill, to parts of Western Maryland and the Eastern Shore.The wagon will also provide week-long residencies in six neighborhoods, where local artists will lead free performance and educational opportunities for community members.“This summer, we are thrilled to give even more Baltimoreans and Marylanders the opportunity to see Shakespeare in their own neighborhoods, without the barriers of ticket costs or transportation,” said CSC Producing Executive Director Lesley Malin in a statement. “We believe in the power of classic theatre to unite us in empathy and community. With support from the NEA, we are excited to expand Shakespeare Beyond’s reach in summer 2025 and bring even more friends, neighbors, and communities together through art.”The National Endowment for the Arts will award a total of 1,127 grants for art projects, worth more than $31.8 million.“The NEA is proud to continue our nearly 60 years of supporting the efforts of organizations and artists that help to shape our country’s vibrant arts sector and communities of all types across our nation,” said Maria Rosario Jackson, the endowment’s chair, in a statement. “It is inspiring to see the wide range of creative projects taking place, including Shakespeare Beyond.In addition to CSC, another of this year’s NEA grant awardees is the Maryland Film Festival, which will receive a $20,000 grant to support the annual film festival and related programming.