Shakespeare & Company News

Marc Robin, the Artistic Director of the historic Fulton Theatre in downtown Lancaster, has announced the company's lineup for its 2014/2015 Mainstage Season and the first fully produced play of the Ellen Arnold Groff Studio Series. The lineup includes a hilarious farce, a holiday hit based on a classic Irving Berlin film musical, an Agatha Christie thriller, a Broadway hit that's a sexy game of cat and mouse, the Mel Brooks musical that took home the most Tony® Awards in history, a feel-good musical based on a Best Picture Oscar® Nominated Film, and perhaps the most magical musical of all time.

Cameron Mackintosh's acclaimed new production of Alain Boublil & Claude-Michel Schonberg's Tony Award-winning musical masterpiece LES MISERABLES begins previews on Broadway tomorrow, today, March 1 at the Imperial Theatre. The official opening night for LES MISERABLES is Sunday, March 23.

Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Partnership with UCF is proud to present a timeless retelling of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar from March 19 - April 20, 2014. The classic drama comes to life on the intimate Goldman Theater stage under the direction of Tina Packer, founder and former Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company, 'a troupe that has kept the Berkshires ringing with the sound of blank verse for 32 years' (The New York Times). The small cast includes Jason Asprey, Paul Bernardo, Nigel Gore, Anne Hering, Jim Ireland, A. Ross Neal, and Esau Pritchett. Tickets ($17 - $40) are available by calling (407) 447-1700, online at http://orlandoshakes.org, or in person at 812 East Rollins St., Orlando, FL 32803.

Popcorn Hat Players presents 'THE LITTLE MERMAID' from April 30-May 22, on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 10:15 a.m., and Saturdays at 1:00 p.m.

Following last year's well-received and highly praised production of HENRY V, Main Street Theater and Prague Shakespeare Company have teamed up again to produce William Shakespeare's MACBETH. For this version of MACBETH, the play is condensed to an 80-minute one act and the plot moves with breakneck speeds through the familiar tale of witches, ambition, murder, and destruction.

Royal & Derngate's Made in Northampton season starts with the world premiere of a new adaptation by Mike Poulton of Charles Dickens' literary masterpiece A Tale Of Two Cities. Directed by the theatre's new Artistic Director James Dacre and with music by the Oscar-winning Rachel Portman, this epic theatrical event takes to Northampton's Royal stage from Friday 21 February to Saturday 15 March. Check out a first look below!

NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts will sponsor a panel discussion on 'Shakespeare Around the World' on Tuesday, March 4 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (1000 Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street). The event begins with an open exhibit of 'Ink Art' at 3PM, followed by the 4PM panel discussion and a 5PM reception. The panel is free with museum admission. Please RSVP to audience.development@metmuseum.org or 2126502525.

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, will present David Ives' THE HEIR APPARENT, adapted from the play by Jean-Francois Regnard, beginning performances Friday, March 28 at CSC (136 East 13th Street). Directed by John Rando, THE HEIR APPARENT will feature Suzanne Bertish (Madame Argante), Carson Elrod (Crispin), Claire Karpen (Lisette), Amelia Pedlow (Isabelle), David Pittu (Scruple), Dave Quay (Eraste) and Paxton Whitehead (Geronte). The official press opening for THE HEIR APPARENT is Wednesday, April 9. The production will play at limited engagement through Sunday, May 4.

Last night at Opening Night of Carson Kreitzer's Lasso of Truth, Marin Theatre Company's artistic director Jasson Minadakis and managing director Michael Barker announced the company's 2014-15 season programming today. Featuring six new plays by living contemporary playwrights in MTC's intimate 231-seat mainstage Boyer Theatre, the season includes:

What has audiences and critics alike falling in love in theaters around the world? Kneehigh's Tristan & Yseult is a theatrical force of nature that combines vibrant storytelling with breathtaking spectacle, set to a rich musical tapestry of original songs and familiar scores performed by a roving ensemble of musicians. Lauded internationally for its trademark vitality, the artistic collective Kneehigh makes its long-awaited Chicago debut at Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) with the iconic work that first catapulted the company to international fame. Tristan & Yseult will delight audiences for a limited run March 30 through April 13 in CST's Courtyard Theater.

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company announces its 2014-2015 Season 21 schedule. CSC's Season 21 is generously sponsored by The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation and all productions will feature Cincinnati Shakespeare Company's Resident Company of Actors. Season 21 subscription packages went on sale February 3, 2014 and experienced a record breaking first day of sales. Single tickets are now on sale and seats are already in high demand!

Barry O'Farrell announced today that the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Matilda The Musical will make its Australian Premiere at Sydney Lyric Theatre in August 2015.

The Prague Shakespeare Company will present Macbeth by William Shakespeare. Main Street Theater will host the production at its Rice Village location. MST and PSC have co-produced Shakespeare's Henry V and Richard III during the past two seasons and both productions were critically acclaimed in Houston and in Prague.

The Wooster Group is currently developing its work CRY, TROJANS! (Troilus & Cressida) in preview performances at The Performing Garage (33 Wooster Street). The Group will celebrate the official premiere tonight, February 27, with the show running through March 9 at REDCAT in Los Angeles.

Marin Theatre Company begins the second half of its 2013-14 Season with the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere of Lasso of Truth, which was co-commissioned by MTC and NNPN in 2010 from Minnesota-based playwright Carson Kreitzer. Running for a limited time now through March 16, this multimedia theatrical event explores the history of Wonder Woman - from her creation as a comic book superhero character to her lasting influence in American pop culture. The play is directed by MTC artistic director Jasson Minadakis and features local actors Lauren English, Jessa Brie Moreno and Liz Sklar, as well John Riedlinger (Minnesota) and Nicholas Rose (Ohio). Based in Mill Valley, MTC is a 47-year old professional nonprofit theater that is a destination for exhilarating performances, inspired new American plays and powerful theatrical experiences.

INTAR today announced the cast for the next production of its 2013-14 season: Adoration of the Old Woman, by Academy Award-nominated and Obie Award winning Jose Rivera and directed by Patricia McGregor will star Raul Castillo (HBO's 'Looking'), Danielle Davenport, Jose Joaquin Perez, Socorro Santiago and Carmen Zilles. This limited Off-Broadway engagement begins March 13th and continues through April 6th only. Opening Night is set for Wednesday March 19th.

Only one other writer could compete with Shakespeare for the title of the most quoted playwright, and that is Oscar Wilde. Seattle Shakespeare Company produces their first production of a Wilde play with The Importance of Being Earnest directed by Victor Pappas this spring.

Music has always played the role of Muse for me as a stage director. Occasionally, when I am stuck creatively or wanting to be around the actors in the rehearsal room or need to assistance in focusing, I will play the same piece of music over and over. I have meditated on Dvorak when considering the relationship between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West in Vita & Virginia, on Bach's cello concertos when considering Julius Caesar, on Bartok when constructing A Midsummer Night's Dream, Zoe Keating for The Tempest, Rachmaninoff for Hamlet, and many others.

Philadelphia Theatre Company's PTC@Play Festival of new work will host a special onstage conversation with PTC's artist-in-residence playwright/performer ANNA DEAVERE SMITH, and two evenings of staged readings by the winners of the Terrence McNally New Play Award, playwrights BILL CAIN and A. ZELL WILLIAMS, all at PTC's home, the Suzanne Roberts Theatre at Broad and Lombard Streets.