Shakespeare & Company Presents LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST

Shakespeare & Company presents William Shakespeare's comedy Love's Labor's Lost, directed by Kelly Galvin and performed outside in The Dell at The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home. This family-friendly, open-air production featuring Shakespeare & Company Education Artists runs from July 10th - August 18th.

"One of Shakespeare's very first plays, Love's Labor's Lost offers us a glimpse of an audacious young playwright delighting in his virtuosity," says director Kelly Galvin. "Within his sparkling poetry we sense the young playwright coming into the fullness of his power. In doing so, he conjures a fantastical world of young luminaries who are coming into power in their own right. In The Dell, where the borders between our actors and audiences are most fluid, we find a perfect setting for Shakespeare's rhapsody of language, laughter, and summer love."

Love's Labor's Lost begins with the King of Navarre dedicating himself and his country to a life of scholarship. The King and his courtiers have made an oath renouncing worldly pleasures and have commanded all the townsfolk of Navarre to do the same. But when the Princess of France and her ladies arrive on a diplomatic visit, the King and his friends find the enticements of summer love more powerful than they had imagined. A spoof of those who try to shun love and life, Love's Labor's Lost is full of witty wordplay, outrageous mishaps, and riotous comedy.

"I fell in love with Shakespeare as a kid seeing the plays performed, so the opportunity to direct in this space for our widest ranging audience is really special for me," continued Galvin. "As we create this play, we're thinking about how the story will resonate for audiences of all ages, and it makes our storytelling more complex, imaginative, and nuanced knowing that we'll have some audience members who are seeing Shakespeare for the first time, and some who already have a deep relationship with the playwright."

Kelly Galvin returns to Shakespeare & Company for her ninth season having just received her MFA in directing from Boston University. The cast features David Bertoldi, Caroline Calkins, Emily Eldridge-Ingram, Lori Evans, Rory Hammond, Luke Haskell, Fiona Herter (Education Intern), Caitlin Kraft, Madeleine Rose Maggio, Rylan Morsbach, Devante Owens (Riotous Youth Intern), Bella Pelz (Riotous Youth Intern), Thomas Reynolds (Riotous Youth Intern), and Dara Silverman. The creative team includes Devon Drohan (Set Design), Elizabeth Magas (Costume Design), Deborah Morris? (Composer), and Cindy Wade (Stage Manager).

Tickets for Love's Labor's Lost are available online at shakespeare.org, or by calling Shakespeare & Company's box office at (413) 637-3353. The show is family-friendly, general admission, and tickets are $25 for adults and $10 for youth. Performances will run approximately 90 minutes with no intermission, and will be followed by short talk-back with the actors. The Mount is located at 2 Plunkett Street in Lenox, Massachusetts. The grounds open 90 minutes before each performance. Audience members are encouraged to bring chairs or blankets and a picnic; chairs are also available to rent for a fee of $2 per chair.

Photo by Katie McKellick

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