Shakespeare in the Park is well known, but how about Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, Shakespeare Made Simple, or Shakespeare Unplugged? These were among the productions discussed at a panel in Midtown called “I Produce Dead People.” Hosted by Theater Resources Unlimited, an organization that provides support and educational services to the theater community, the panel was moderated by Back Stage newspaper editor at large, Sherry Eaker.

The founder of Theater Resources Unlimited, Bob Ost, opened by saying that he was partially inspired to create this panel after hosting a program in January on the function of dramaturges. But the other reason was the number of people over the years who had said: “I don’t want to work with another living playwright as long as I live.”

“As a living playwright, I took slight umbrage at it,” he said, adding that nevertheless, if you think you’re having problems producing living playwrights there are problems producing dead ones, as well.

“The problems with dead playwrights are vastly smaller,” artistic director of the Drilling Company, Hamilton Clancy, said.

“They don’t talk back,” the founder of the York Shakespeare Company, Seth Duerr, said. Mr. Clancy said with a classical playwright, there is this “huge ego buried in the earth, and he rises in the text, we have to do him homage, but not nearly as often as the living writer.” (But later the panel addressed difficulties of working with estates of deceased playwrights.)

Mr. Clancy, who had to exit the panel early because of what Mr. Ost called “a rehearsal crisis,”spoke about Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, presented at Ludlow and Broome streets. He commented on the relevance of classical plays. “The Tempest,” he said, is “really a play for our time. The world is in a tempest.”

He added, “We ask ourselves what’s going on in the world? What needs to be said? Fortunately with a playwright like Shakespeare, we’re never at a loss for finding a play that speaks to our time, and since we do plays in a parking lot, we’re never at a loss for doing it in an unconventional way.”

“People can really write in iambic pentameter in the 21st century,” the artistic director of the Judith Shakespeare Company, Joanne Zipay, said.

So far, her company has produced half the Shakespearean canon with women in the title roles. She said she became interested in producing Shakespeare’s “Troilus and Cressida” because no one already knew the play.

The artistic director of New Perspectives, Melody Brooks, spoke next. Her company produces a combination of new plays and classics including a series called “Shakespeare Made Simple” for middle and high school students.

Discussion turned to disadvantages and advantages in marketing a classical play. Ms. Eaker said some classical plays are not well known. Producing artistic director of the Lovestreet Theater, Julie Halpern, discussed their production of “Trojan Women,” a play that most knew nothing about other than its existence. Mr. Ost said, if one approaches the average person on the street, they would know “Hamlet” and “Macbeth.” But how many would know the Jacobean drama “The Revenger’s Tragedy,” he asked. In producing the Bard, however, “There is a movie star involved. His name is Shakespeare,” Mr. Clancy said.

Mr. Duerr of the York Shakespeare Company said he has acted in 28 Shakespeare plays in the last five years. He has also directed and produced many Shakespeare productions. “We put together a repertory with 25 actors, where I directed and played the title role in Coriolanus, Timon of Athens, King Lear, and Henry V. You would get to see a different show every night and on Saturdays you could see all four.”

In addition to Shakespeare, producing artistic director of Prospect Theater Company, Cara Reichel, said her company had produced works by playwrights as Lorca, Brecht, and Schiller.

With a background in classics and ancient and medieval art, Ms. Halpern of the Lovestreet Theater said she was inspired by wandering around art museums: “I get ideas of plays to produce by looking at the paintings” and seeing how figures “are sitting, what they are wearing, what the fabric was like.”

Ms. Reichel said there are similarities to good classical theater and good musical theater: projection, vocal support and diction, heightened language, and understanding of style. Mr. Ost said a great actor makes the audience understand the text.

Ms. Zipay mentioned some difficulties of producing classical theater.One needs to find a theater with a lot of entrances and exits on stage: also it is difficult to coordinate rehearsal schedules among a large cast.

Panelists differed on the need for program notes. Mr. Duerr said he could not stand the idea of them; Mr. Ost said he found them extremely helpful. “I’m classics challenged,” he said. Ms. Zipay said Judith Shakespeare program notes have included a quiz on Greek gods.

How tough is the climate for producing classical? Ms. Brooks said that 2% of American theatergoing audiences regularly attend Shakespeare performances. She compared this to the American pioneers, who in crossing the plains took with them the Bible and Shakespeare.

gshapiro@nysun.com