Oscar Winner Olympia Dukakis Stars In Staged Reading Of LEAP YEAR At Shakespeare & Company 8/31

Shakespeare & Company will present a staged reading of LEAP YEAR, featuring Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis. The reading takes place Monday, August 31 at 7pm.

This staged reading is an early kick-off to the 15th Annual Studio Festival of Plays. Proceeds from the fundraiser will support the Kresge Challenge.

"Notions of parenting, personal responsibility, the sense one has of God, and the redemptive quality of love and personal forgiveness, are all at the center of Leap Year. This heartfelt drama tells the story of a thirty-something couple, Rob and Lisa Montgomery, whose second child is born with Down's Syndrome. The First Act takes place in a duplex apartment in Los Angeles, starting the day their son is born, on February 29th, 1988, as the couple, their friends, and family struggle to come to terms with the painful event and the difficult choiches they suddenly face. The Second Act transpires five leap years later, on February 29th, 2008, in the same duplex apartment, when the decisions the Montgomerys have made play out in stark terms."

LEAP YEAR is written by William Coe Bigelow. The production is directed by Tony Simotes.

The cast includes:

Olympia Dukakis, Academy Award winner, teacher and S&Co alumna

Elizabeth Aspenlieder, long-time Company member and Elliot Norton Award-winner in this season's Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Corinna May, critically-acclaimed actress and long-time Company member in this season's Twelfth Night

David Adkins, special guest from Berkshire Theatre Festival (Waiting for Godot and this season's Faith Healer at BTF)

Josh Aaron McCabe, from this season's Hound of the Baskervilles and Les Liaisons Dangereuses

Tickets are priced $30, $40, and $50, and includes an opportunity to meet with the cast after the show.

For more information, call 413-637-3353 or visit Shakespeare.org.