You walk into an Albuquerque brewery on a Saturday night in May and immediately see and hear a ruckus. One person is being held down by another, and a third person is trying to intervene. Meanwhile, every patron in the bar is cheering them on.
This isn’t your typical bar fight, though. This is Duke City Repertory Theatre’s Bard Crawl, a Shakespeare performance in bars and breweries across the city.
@visitalbuquerque At Bard Crawl, all the world's a stage - including your local neighborhood bar. The Duke City Repertory Theatre company presents Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors" at bars and breweries across Albuquerque throughout May. These performances are set in familiar, immersive settings for theatre buffs and curious newcomers alike. Audiences are free to walk around, drink beer and eat pub food just a few feet - or inches! - away from the performers. Bard Crawl performances are "pay what it's worth," so you can show up, relax and contribute what feels right at the end of the show. The next performances are: May 4 · 7 p.m. · Canteen Brewhouse May 12 · 7:30 p.m. · Sidetrack Brewing May 15 · 7:30 p.m. · Marble NE Heights May 17 · 4 p.m. · Ex Novo Corrales May 19 · 7:30 p.m. · 1710 Central Ave. SW May 21 · 7 p.m. · Painted Lady May 22 · 7:30 p.m. · Flock of Moons May 24 · 7:30 p.m. · Differential Brewing
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Bard Crawl was inspired by The Backroom Shakespeare Project in Chicago. With their permission, Duke City Rep’s artistic director and founder Amelia Ampuero started Bard Crawl, featuring serious actors, no director and just one rehearsal. The performances usually take place in a bar (and sometimes other places).
“We were really attracted to this idea that Bard Crawl-style performances get people a little bit closer to the environment that Shakespeare was writing for, which is rowdier and more boisterous and more involved than your traditional theater setting,” Amelia said.
The cast of "Comedy of Errors"
In May 2026, you’ll find Duke City Rep actors performing William Shakespeare’s “Comedy of Errors” in bars and breweries in Albuquerque. There’s no stage, so audience members become a part of the play themselves.
“The barrier between audience and performer is so incredibly thin,” Duke City Rep company member Evening Star Barron said.
“You can go to a traditional theater space and watch ‘Romeo and Juliet,’” Amelia said. “Maybe you'll even be affected by it. It's different when Juliet is dying six inches from you, and that action is happening, not just in front of you, but around you.”
Amelia created Duke City Rep in 2007, with the first show being in 2010, as a response to feeling excluded in audition rooms.
“I wanted to create a space for all of the people who didn't look like the people on the other side of the table,” Amelia said.
“When I was younger, I never really saw people like me,” Duke City Rep actor Noe Field-Perkins said. “I’m Indigenous and I’m transgender, and I’ve always had a passion for acting as the art of empathy…I want people who maybe can identify with my experience to feel like they exist.”
Noe Field-Perkins
Bard Crawl casts people across race, gender and age, creating a unique way to play with characterization. Additionally, because Bard Crawl only has one rehearsal and no director, each performance is shaped by the actors and their ideas.
“You must arrive with your pockets full,” said Duke City Rep actor Katie Farmin. “Everybody comes in with their pockets stuffed with things, whether it’s ideas or characters…and then just throw it all on the floor and see what works.”
“We do nine or ten [performances], and the work gets really good by the end,” said Duke City Rep company member Josh Browner. “It gives our audiences a chance to come see three different shows in one run.”
The ever-evolving show proves to be an exciting challenge for the actors.
“It's an acting workout,” said Noe. “It’s almost like a boot camp,” Amelia added. “If you can handle a Bard Crawl, you can handle anything as an actor.”
Josh Browner and Amelia Ampuero
One of the biggest things the actors have to contend with is conveying the language Shakespeare used to modern audiences. Bard Crawl includes some more modern ad libs, but the actors try to keep those to a minimum and perform the play in the way Shakespeare wrote it.
“Nobody’s trying to dumb down the language, but it is [figuring out] how I can speak and present this language in a way that people who don’t talk like this can understand,” said Katie.
“The audience feels it in your body,” said Noe. “They don’t have to understand every little line. If they see how you’re feeling, they can understand the story.”
That understanding and ability to tell Shakespeare in their own voices makes Bard Crawl a more accessible way for an audience to experience Shakespeare. People who visit the brewery and are unaware of the Bard Crawl performance happening end up getting sucked in and enjoying the performance. Even those more familiar with the Bard’s work see it in a new light.
“We've had multiple people come up to us and say, ‘I didn't think I liked Shakespeare,’ or ‘I thought I knew what that play was,’” said Evening Star. “There's just something about doing it the way that we do it.”
Katie Farmin and Evening Star Barron
This unique way of performing fosters a sense of community that’s hard to find in typical performances.
“It is alive. It's fresh,” Katie said. “It forces you to not make the same choice over and over again. And I actually think it gets closer to what Shakespeare was trying to get at in telling these stories, because they are community-based.”
“There’s something about this communal experience, whether it’s five people or 500 people coming together and having this moment of witnessing a story together that feels ancient and timeless and super connected to the community,” Amelia said.
If you want to become a part of the Bard Crawl community, you can catch a performance of “Comedy of Errors” through May 24 at breweries around Albuquerque. And stay tuned in October for another round of Bard Crawl, this time with performances of “Hamlet.”
