William Shakespeare News

"Tragedy is easy... comedy is hard." The short stories and sketches of James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, and the legendary Mark Twain fill the bill of Centenary Stage Company's ninth GREAT AUTHORS ALOUD presentation for this free staged reading event on Sunday, September 7th at 3 pm in The Edith Kutz Theater.

Nevada Ballet Theatre (NBT) will launch its 43nd (2014-2015) main stage performance season and its third year as Resident Ballet Company of The Smith Center for the Performing Arts with A Midsummer Night's Dream Act I and Seasons on Saturday, September 20 at 7:30 pm andSunday, September 21 at 2 pm. Tickets from $29 (plus fees) may be purchased by calling The Smith Center Box Office at (702) 749-2000 or by visiting www.nevadaballet.org.

Bay Street Theater launched The Bay Street Shakespeare Initiative last weekend with the presentation of two outdoor staged readings of THE TEMPEST, directed by Scott Schwartz, starring Tony Award winner John Glover as Prospero. Check out the photos here!

The Hilberry Theatre will kick off its 52nd Season of plays on September 19 with the popular farce Boeing Boeing. The season features comedies and dramas that collectively earned 19 Tony and Drama Desk Award nominations. Season tickets are on sale now.

Lantern Theater Company announces the addition of QED by Peter Parnell to its 2014/15 mainstage season, completing a line-up that also includes Tom Stoppard's theatrical masterpiece Arcadia, John Patrick Shanley's Pulitzer and Tony Award-winning Doubt: A Parable, William Shakespeare's classic comedy of the sexes The Taming of the Shrew, and Steven Canny and John Nicholson's inventive and brilliantly farcical adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Hound of the Baskervilles.

From September 4-14, 2014, Houston Ballet launches its 45th season with the company premiere of John Neumeier's visually stunning three-act ballet A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Leftend Productions presents a high-energy, music-filled, wondrous production of William Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT, from October 3 through October 26, Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sunday matinees at 3 PM, at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave.

William Shakespeare's ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA opened on Thursday night at Stratford Festival's Tom Patterson Theatre. Last performed at the festival in 2003, this production stars Geraint Wyn Davies and Yanna McIntosh as the famed Roman General and Queen of Egypt, respectively. Directed by Gary Griffin, and featuring many stellar performances, Shakespeare's perspective of this historic relationship is brought to life.

Hamlet Isn't Dead is proud to present Henry VI parts I, II & III in Repertory over the first three weeks of September at the WOW Cafe Theatre!

Bay Street Theater has announced the launch of The Bay Street Shakespeare Initiative with the presentation of two outdoor staged readings of THE TEMPEST, starring Tony Award winner John Glover as Prospero, this weekend, August 16 and 17.

Think about the combined genius of Arthur Laurents, Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, and Jerome Robbins and the driving inspiration of William Shakespeare that created West Side Story. Then realize how awesome a dare it is to mount this classic musical, to be true to its artistry, its complexity, and its messages ~ especially for an ensemble of teenage actors. And then, stand up and give a hearty hurrah for the cast of Valley Youth Theatre which has aced the challenge. Directed by Bobb Cooper, VYT's Producing Artistic Director, the Jets and the Sharks explode onto the stage of the Herberger Theater with verve and muscularity.

The Bryn Mawr College Performing Arts Series plays, acts and dances a happy 450th birthday to William Shakespeare in a Bard's Birthday Bash with Scenes, Sonnets, Music and Dance with Members of Piffaro and Guests on Saturday, October 4 at 8:30 p.m. at Thomas Great Hall. Piffaro, playing reconstructions of Renaissance instruments such as shawms, dulcians, sackbuts, recorders, krumhorns, bagpipes, lutes, guitars, harps and a variety of percussion, perform music of Shakespeare's time including old English ballads, instrumental fantasies and country dances, some with direct connections to his plays. The program will weave in scenes from some of Shakespeare's most popular plays directed by Barrymore Award-winning director James J. Christy and performed by leading local actors. The celebration concludes with dancing, taught to the audience by Renaissance dancing master Dorothy Olsson.

Shakespeare Rep has announced its 2014-15 season line-up. A Season of Wonders will pair two enchanting romantic comedies that spotlight the magic of love: Almost, Maine by John Cariani and William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Seattle Public Theater's (SPT) Youth present a festive, grunge-era take on William Shakespeare's classic comedy-romance, As You Like It.

Now anyone and everyone can join in the thrill of opening night at the opera! The Dallas Opera and the Sheila and Jody Grant Opera Discovery Program, with support from the AT&T Performing Arts Center, present an evening of FREE entertainment at Dallas's popular Klyde Warren Park, the second annual “Dallas Opera Opening Night Simulcast in the Park” featuring Mozart's class-conscious romantic comedy, The Marriage of Figaro.

Gorilla Rep is back to its old tricks -- that is giving New Yorkers free performances of William Shakespeare's classic comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Beginning today, August 14, 2014, performances will run for four weeks - from Thursday through Sunday at 8 p.m. starting at the Southwest corner of Washington Square Park.

James Cady's all-male version of Hamlet presented by Champion Productions, plays at the Musical Theatre Southwest Center for Theatre today, August 14-24.

The award-winning Boomerang Theatre Company and Artistic Director Tim Errickson, in association with Bryant Park Shakespeare, are excited to announce their production of LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST by William Shakespeare, directed by Associate Artistic Director Cailin Heffernan. LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST will be presented at Bryant Park (Upper Terrace Steps, 42nd Street and 6th Avenue), Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., beginning today, August 14 through Saturday, August 30, 2014.

'Denmark's a prison.' Those words spoken by Hamlet in William Shakespeare's play, written more than 400 years ago, inspired veteran director James Cady to set his production of Hamlet in a state penitentiary. 'I don't know if I'm the first director to stage the play this way, but actual prisoners have been producing the play as part of their rehabilitation for several years. The play seems to speak, on a deeply emotional and redemptive level, to inmates whose crimes parallel the characters in Hamlet, primarily murder and revenge.'