Photo Flash: Baltimore Shakespeare Performs ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA in Original Pronunciation

Baltimore Shakespeare Factory (BSF), working closely with world-renowned dialect and original pronunciation (OP) expert Paul Meier, will open its 2017 season with an historic production of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, March 31 through April 23 at The Great Hall at St. Mary's Community Center. BSF's presentation will be the very first time that modern audiences will be able to hear Antony and Cleopatra spoken the way Shakespeare's audiences would have heard it when it was first performed in the early 1600s.

Tickets start at $15, plus applicable service fees, and are on sale now at Brown Paper Tickets. For more information, call (410) 662-9455 or visit BaltimoreShakespeareFactory.org.

This will be the third consecutive season in which BSF has produced a play in OP. In keeping with the company's philosophy to produce the works of Shakespeare using the staging conditions of his time, the company plans to continue performing at least one play in OP each season, making BSF among the world's foremost producers of OP Shakespeare. Worldwide, less than twenty OP productions have been mounted since the 2004 Globe Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet revitalized interest in that type of Shakespearean performance.

Considered by some to be the greatest love story ever told, Antony and Cleopatra is a sweeping epic that pits East against West in a battle that shaped a new world. The play offers keen insight into timeless themes of love, honor, and power that are still relevant today.

BSF's associate artistic director Chris Cotterman and Valerie Dowdle play the title roles, respectively. Chris has been part of BSF since 2012. He directed last season's Much Ado About Nothing, and co-directed 2013's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Tom Delise. Valerie has been a company member with BSF since 2014, when she played Duke Vincentio in Measure for Measure. In 2015 she appeared as Portia in The Merchant of Venice in OP, and as King Henry in the all-female production of Henry IV, Part 1. BSF founder and artistic director Tom Delise directs this production.

With its commitment to presenting OP productions, BSF continues its relationship with OP experts David and Ben Crystal. Accent and dialect expert Paul Meier joins the advisory board, and will consult on this production. Meier is a Shakespeare scholar, teacher and coach. His Voicing Shakespeare ebook addresses the linguistic challenges of Shakespearean language. As a member of the BBC Drama Repertory Company, Meier acted in more than a dozen of Shakespeare's works. In his teaching at universities and conservatories, and in his classes at the Shakespeare Centre in Stratford-upon-Avon in England, he has trained two generations of actors in Shakespeare's works.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

March 31 - April 23, 2017

Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 4 p.m.

Pre-show entertainment begins 30 minutes before curtain.

The Great Hall at St. Mary's Community Center - 3900 Roland Avenue, Baltimore 21211

http://www.baltimoreshakespearefactory.org

Photo Credit: Will Kirk

Chris Cotterman as Mark Antony and Valerie Dowdle as Cleopatra
Troy Jennings as Octavius Caesar
Valerie Dowdle as Cleopatra

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