William Shakespeare News

First Folio Theatre, (Mayslake Peabody Estate, 31st St. & Rt. 83), is presenting a special fully staged reading of SHYLOCK AND HIS DAUGHTER by Maurice Schwartz on Thursday, July 26 and Thursday, August 2, 9, and 16 at 8:15 p.m. Originally written for the Yiddish theater and translated into English, this play tells the same story as First Folio's main stage Shakespeare-under-the-Stars production, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE, but from Shylock's perspective.

The Shakespeare Center of Los Angeles (SCLA), under the artistic direction of Ben Donenberg, returns after 16 years to The Japanese Garden on the grounds of the VA West Los Angeles Healthcare Center Campus with a summer production of William Shakespeare's romantic comedy "As You Like It," directed by Royal Shakespeare Company artist Kenn Sabberton, now through July 29. Tom Hanks and his wife actress Rita Wilson were spotted at the July 18th performance. Check out the photos from the evening's arrivals below!

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is delighted to present the regional premiere of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES adapted by Steve Canny.

Juilliard's Drama Division announces the complete schedule for its 2012-2013 season of fully-staged productions featuring students in their fourth and final year of acting training in the drama program at Juilliard.

The Shakespeare Theatre Company will become a conservatory partnerof the William E. Doar Jr. Public Charter School (WEDJ PCS) for the Performing Arts. Starting this fall, STC teaching artists will introduce students in kindergarten through eighth grade to theatre arts and the works of William Shakespeare. WEDJ PCS students will receive instruction in the art of reading, understanding and performing classical plays during this year-long partnership.

Spotlighters Theatre - Young Actors Academy is thrilled to announce it's eighth year, providing an intensive theatre program for Middle and High School students, and an introduction through creative play for Lower School students to the FUN-damentals of theatre and acting. This year the High School Academy will present William Shakespeare's MACBETH. The Middle School Academy will tackle Shakespeare's comedy of mistaken identity - Two Gentlemen of Verona. And the Lower School Academy will be presenting a devised work, created using shared and common themes.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's 21st season will feature daytime television star Tom Degnan in the role of Brick Pollitt in Tennessee William's Pulitzer Prize winning classic, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

Scissor Sisters, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker, Alan Ayckbourn, Daniel Barenboim, Rokia Traoré, Toni Morrison, Peter Sellars, Paco Peña, Simon Russell Beale, Hugh Masekela, Angelique Kidjo, Gong Linna, Sung Hwan Kim, Tom Hiddleston, Julie Walters, John Hurt, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Tracey Emin, and Bridget Riley are among the stars of London 2012 Festival's fifth week.

UATG Theatre Guild presents a student production of THE MERCHANT OF VENICE by William Shakespeare, directed by Edwin Kemp Attrill, University of Adelaide Theatre Guild Artistic Director. The show will play the Little Theatre, The Cloisters, University of Adelaide, Sat 11, Tues-Sat 14-18 & 21-25 August 2012 at 7.30pm, with a matinee on Sunday 19 August at 2pm.

Tennessee Williams' favorite among his own plays, the Pulitzer prize-winning Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, opens Saturday, July 21st on the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival main stage, in rep with Much Ado About Nothing.

The Queens Players present Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare, Aug 2-4, 9-12, 16-18 at 8 p.m., with a matinee on Aug 18 at 2PM at The Secret Theatre.

Antoni Cimolino today announced the Stratford Shakespeare Festival's playbill for 2013, his first season as Artistic Director, and began to outline his vision for the Festival's future during his tenure.

The funeral of a baby, the grieving parents look for reasons why their child should be taken from them. Finding no reason but the caprice of fate, the couple moves forward to exercise that caprice on those around them. Their hope for immortality through their child dashed, they will live on through infamy. As one begins in amoral certitude and descends to a moral madness, the other travels the road from moral doubt to a profane confidence to awful self-knowledge, neither losing sight of the love and loss that propelled their actions.

Portland Shakespeare Project presents an ambitious second summer of producing with The Season of Lear -- two shows, playing in rotating repertory. The Season of Lear includes an inventive adaptation of William Shakespeare's King Lear written by award-winning local playwright C.S. Whitcomb, and a startling new staging of Shakespeare's classic King Lear using only six actors and keeping the original text intact. BroadwayWorld has a first look at KING'S LEAR, opening July 18 on the Morrison Stage at Artists Repertory Theatre through August 5.

According to a recent Equity audition notice, Romeo and Juliet might be heading back to Broadway in the near future, with auditions taking place at the end of the month. The Shakespearan classic might also embark on a national tour in 2013. A production timeline has not been announced.

Celebrated cabaret performer Jamie deRoy just hosted an evening of her multi- MAC Award-winning variety show, Jamie deRoy & friends last night, July 16th at the brand new Broadway nightclub, 54 BELOW (254 West 54th Street ~ btw. 7th & 8th Avenues). BroadwayWorld was there for the concert and we bring you photos from the event below!

Horse Trade Theater Group announces the fall and early spring lineup for their 14th season, which will include World Premiere productions from Horse Trade's newest resident companies, Theater in Asylum, Less Than Rent, Slash Coleman, and Spookfish Theatre Company and veteran residents Grayce Productions, Dysfunctional Theatre Company, and The Pumpkin Pie Show.

First Folio Theatre, known for bringing high quality performances of Shakespeare and other classics to the Chicagoland suburbs, closes its landmark 15th season with William Shakespeare's most controversial play, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. A complex tale of hatred, love, revenge, and betrayal, THE MERCHANT OF VENICE opened on Saturday, July 14, and runs through August 19, 2012. Check out photos from opening night below!

Shakespeare Theatre Company ends their Tony Award-winning season with a luxurious production of Shakespeare's THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR and prepares for another 'Free for All.'