Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Will Perform Shakespeare for Flood Relief

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company will open its 16th summer outdoor season in the Patapsco Female Institute Historic Park with two Flood Relief Benefit Performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream on June 20 and June 21, 2018. Gates open at 6:30pm for picnics. The benefit performances will begin at 8pm. Bring a picnic and a bottle of wine and enjoy family-friendly, professional theatre under the stars while helping neighbors in need. For tickets and details, please visit ChesapeakeShakespeare.com or call the box office at 410-244-8570.

Benefit preview performance tickets are $16, with general admission seating (our chairs or your blanket), and donations beyond the ticket price are strongly encouraged to support flood relief. One hundred percent of all donations made and the net proceeds of all ticket sales for the two performances will be given to the Howard County Community Relief Fund of the nonprofit Community Foundation of Howard County, a partner in the OneEllicottCityRecovery collaboration of flood relief and aid agencies. The theatre's ticket vendor, Patron Manager, has waived its processing fees for the performances to support the effort.

"Ellicott City is where Chesapeake Shakespeare company grew up and we love returning every summer, so we are shattered by this devastation coming only 22 months after the last flood," says Lesley Malin, Managing Director. "Everyone in our company is anxious to help. Offering benefit performances seemed like a natural. We are terribly fortunate that the PFI Historic park was unaffected by the flood and we are eager to give back to this community which has given us so much. We also hope that by getting folks from outside the area back to Ellicott City that they will remember what a charming and lovely place it is and be more inclined to help."

With its quartet of mismatched lovers and a forest of fairies, A Midsummer Night's Dream is an enchanting romantic comedy. Whenever mortals and fairies cross paths, mayhem follows - along with maybe the funniest scene Shakespeare ever wrote. For the summer play, the picturesque PFI Historic Park becomes ancient Athens and a nearby forest. There will be Bronze Age-inspired costumes and a rare treat: authentic music of the period. Director Gerrad Alex Taylor, a CSC Associate Artistic Director and Director of The Studio, draws inspiration from the version of the play found in the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare's works.

SUMMER SEASON: The summer season of Shakespeare under the stars will continue in the park from Opening Night on Friday, June 22, 2018, to closing on Sunday, July 29, 2018. For complete dates, ticket prices, and details, please visit ChesapeakeShakespeare.com. NOTE: Temporary road closures in the flood impact zone may cause detours from familiar routes to the park. Best route: Take Rogers Avenue to Court House Drive, and park free in the Howard County Courthouse lot. For the PFI, the best address for GPS users is 3655 Church Road, Ellicott City, MD 21043.

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