Shakespeare's Globe to Bring HAMLET, KING LEAR to Folger Theatre's 2014-15 Season; Lineup Announced!

Folger Theatre Artistic Producer Janet Alexander Griffin today announced the 2014/15 season. With six full Shakespeare productions on stage at the Folger to celebrate the Bard's 450th, Folger Theatre will start the upcoming season with two special, limited engagements by London's Shakespeare's Globe. First, the acclaimed staging of Hamlet, seen at the Folger in 2012, returns in late July for just three performances as part of their Globe to Globe Hamlet, the ambitious two-year tour bringing the Danish prince to every country in the world. Then, once again in a September residency, Shakespeare's Globe will perform King Lear for eighteen shows. Joseph Marcell (TV's The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and Jacques in Folger Theatre's 2007 As You Like It) plays the title role.

Folger Theatre productions commence in October with Robert Richmond (Richard III and Henry V) directing Julius Caesar, Shakespeare's gripping portrayal of loyalty, power, and revenge. In January, Friedrich Schiller's struggle between queens Mary Stuart stars Kate Eastwood Norris as Mary, Queen of Scots, and Holly Twyford as Elizabeth I. Richard Clifford (The Game of Love and Chance and The Clandestine Marriage) returns to direct this award-winning version of Schiller by Peter Oswald. The season concludes with Tom Stoppard's 1966 existentialist comedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, directed by Helen Hayes Award-winner Aaron Posner (Romeo and Juliet and Arcadia) and featuring Ian Merrill Peakes as The Player.

Subscriptions go on sale April 1. Visit www.folger.edu/theatre for more information, or call the Folger Box Office at 202.544.7077.

FOLGER THEATRE'S 2014/15 SEASON:

Hamlet

By William Shakespeare

From Shakespeare's Globe

Directed by Dominic Dromgoole & Bill Buckhurst

July 25 and 26, 2014

Last seen on the Folger stage in September 2012, Shakespeare's Globe's Hamlet returns for three performances only as part of their "Globe to Globe" two-year tour, which brings the play to every country in the world. This is the Globe's only East Coast performance in the United States for their tour, which launches on April 23, the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth. This pared-down, intimate production - with a new cast of just eight actors - is a fresh version of the classic tragedy of revenge. The New York Times applauded "a production that prizes efficiency, clarity, accessibility, and above all, energy."

King Lear

By William Shakespeare

From Shakespeare's Globe

Directed by Bill Buckhurst

September 5 - 21, 2014

Weary of his royal duties, King Lear proposes to break up his kingdom and divide it among his three daughters. Shakespeare's Globe's On Tour production of Shakespeare's great tragedy - seen last summer on the Globe stage and also in cities and countries around the world, from Istanbul to St. Lucia - continues at the Folger Theatre in a limited engagement of eighteen performances. Shakespeare's Globe's King Lear stars Joseph Marcell, well known as Geoffrey the English butler on the hit TV show The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and internationally known as a classical actor and seen in Folger Theatre's 2007 As You Like It.

Julius Caesar

By William Shakespeare

Directed by Robert Richmond

October 28 - December 7, 2014

Robert Richmond (Richard III and Henry V) returns to the Folger to direct Shakespeare's classic political thriller. A cold-blooded murder conspiracy is taking shape. An assassination of the Roman Empire's most popular ruler by his most trusted friends is followed by complete chaos. Julius Caesar is more relevant now than ever, an unforgettable depiction of friendships sacrificed to ambition and the seductive appeal of power.

Mary Stuart

By Friedrich Schiller

In a new version by Peter Oswald

Directed by Richard Clifford

January 27 - March 8, 2015

The 19th-century Friedrich Schiller play, newly adapted by Peter Oswald, depicts the final days of Mary, the former Queen of Scots. Imprisoned by her Protestant cousin and Queen of England Elizabeth I, Mary anxiously awaits for her fate to be decided in an era of lies and intrigue. Richard Clifford, who staged the Folger production of The School for Scandal, directs this searing drama of scheming and betrayal, featuring Kate Eastwood Norris as Mary Stuart, Holly Twyford as Queen Elizabeth I, Cody Nickell as Robert Dudley and Nancy Robinette as Hannah Kennedy.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

By Tom Stoppard

Directed by Aaron Posner

May 12 - June 21, 2015

Stoppard's absurdist play featuring a veritable feast of astute wordplay and wit is newly staged by Helen Hayes Award-winning director Aaron Posner (Romeo and Juliet and Arcadia). This "Best Play" Tony Award® winner centers on the misadventures and musings of two childhood friends of the Prince of Denmark from Shakespeare's Hamlet. Exploring profound themes of fate, free will, identity, illusion, and life in a box, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is a modern theatrical classic. Featuring Ian Merrill Peakes (Henry VIII, Macbeth) as The Player.

Tickets/Information: www.folger.edu/theatre or 202.544.7077. Subscriptions begin at $105. Individual tickets are $40 - $75, with discounts offered to students, seniors, military, and groups of ten or more. Performances are held at Folger Theatre, located at 201 East Capitol Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003. The nearest metro stations are Capitol South (blue/orange lines, 4 blocks) and Union Station (red line, 7 blocks). Street parking is available in the surrounding Capitol Hill neighborhood.

About Folger Theatre and Folger Shakespeare Library: Folger Theatre is the centerpiece of Folger Shakespeare Library's programs for the public and is recognized for dynamic performances in the 250-seat Elizabethan-styled theatre, specializing in innovative stagings of works by Shakespeare, other classical work, and new plays inspired by these traditions. Since 1991, Folger Theatre has been honored by the Helen Hayes Awards with 20 awards and 125 nominations for excellence in acting, direction, design, and production-including the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play in 2011 for Hamlet (a year in which all three of Folger's theatrical productions were nominated in that category). In September 2012, Folger Theatre brought from London Shakespeare's Globe's Hamlet for the company's first Washington appearance. Most recently, Folger Theatre was the recipient of the 2013 Helen Hayes Award for "Outstanding Resident Play" for its production of The Taming of the Shrew. Janet Alexander Griffin is the Artistic Producer of Folger Theatre and Director of Public Programs which includes the Folger's music and literary series. Learn more at www.folger.edu/theatre.

Folger Shakespeare Library is a renowned center for scholarship, learning, culture, and the arts. Home to the world's largest Shakespeare collection and a primary repository for research material from the early modern period (1500-1750), Folger Shakespeare Library is an internationally recognized research library offering advanced scholarly programs in the humanities; a national leader in how Shakespeare is taught in grades K-12; and an award-winning producer of cultural and arts programs-theatre, music, poetry, exhibits, lectures, and family programs. A gift to the American people from industrialist Henry Clay Folger, Folger Shakespeare Library-located one block east of the U.S. Capitol-opened in 1932 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Learn more at www.folger.edu.

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