Shakespeare for a very young audience will be onstage at the Sewell Mill Library & Cultural Center, 2051 Lower Roswell Road, Marietta 30068, on Wednesday, July 10 at 7 p.m.

The Atlanta Shakespeare Academy’s Tempest, Junior!, a 45-minute version of the bard’s comedy The Tempest, is tailored for children ages 4-7.

According to the announcement on the Cobb Public Library web page:

The free Theatre for the Very Young production in the Sewell Mill Black Box Theatre will feature much audience engagement while introducing Shakespeare language and characters to kids. The cast is four energetic professional actors and puppets.

The performance is also sensory-friendly, in a series the Atlanta Shakespeare Academy describes as “Relaxed Performances.”

Here’s how its website describes the Relaxed Performances:

We at the Atlanta Shakespeare Company are committed to making art accessible for everyone, and we are thrilled to be able to offer relaxed performances throughout the season. While still maintaining the show’s standards for artistic integrity, this performance has been designed especially for enjoyment by those audience members with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other sensory-related concerns.

About the Cobb County Public Library

According to the Cobb County Public Library website:

Cobb County Public Library is a 15-branch system headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, where its staff members serve a diverse population of over 750,000 people. Cobb is one of Georgia’s fastest-growing counties, and Cobb County Public Library is dedicated to being a resource center in the community by providing equal access to information, materials, and services.

History of Cobb’s library system

The first public library in Cobb County was opened in the home of Sarah Freeman Clarke in Marietta. Clarke, whose family was from Massachusetts, was an advocate for free lending libraries and began lending books from her own collection informally from her house before it became obvious there needed to be a better-organized library system.

According to The First Hundred Years, A Short History of Cobb County in Georgia, by Sarah Blackwell Gober Temple, the library opened in 1882, was at Clarke’s residence on Whitlock Avenue, and was named the Franklin Library.

The first standalone library building opened on Church Street in October 1893 and was named the Sarah Freeman Clarke Library.

Subsequently, libraries were opened in Acworth and Austell. In 1959, the city of Marietta and several other Cobb County libraries combined to form a countywide system that began the Cobb County Public Library as we know it today.

You can read more about the history of the Cobb County Public Library by following this link.