Marking its 14th successful year of free Shakespeare on the Common, the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, in partnership with the City of Boston and Mayor Menino, opened the 2009 season with a toe-tapping production of “The Comedy of Errors” – directed by Steve Maler.

This rendition of "The Comedy of Errors”, set in 1930’s South Beach Miami, was presented complete with sand, a lifeguard, surfers and a comic cast of characters in nightly open-air performances on the Boston Common adjacent to the Parkman Bandstand.

At times both the cast and crew were subjected to working in heat wave conditions. At other times the cast was running for cover while the crew was forced to face fierce thunder and lightning in a torrential downpour.

"When we started several people asked what our rain plan would be. We had no choice. Our rain plan was bring your booties 'cause everyone is going to get wet", commented Production Manager Mark Lorenzo, "During part of load in we got bucketed on. That whole day even our socks were soaking wet"!

Some months prior to the opening of the show High Output began a collaboration with Production Manager Mark Lorenzo, Lighting Designer Scott Pinkney, Master Electrician Mercedes Roman-Manson, Audio Designer and Composer David Wilson, and Director Steve Maler to develop an extensive equipment and systems support package for this year's performances. In this season's equipment support package High Output included: power generation and distribution using one of our dual 1200 amp "Film Silent" twin pack generators, a lighting equipment package utilizing a combination of Vari-lite intelligent fixtures and ETC conventional fixtures, a full sound reinforcement package plus the 40ft. by 30ft. self climbing truss grid needed to hang the speakers and lighting fixtures.

For more information about The Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, visit their interactive site at http://www.commshakes.org. For more photos of the production check out the Flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmaxwell. Many thanks to Ryan Maxwell for all the great photos.