Cleveland Play House Celebrates 20th Anniversary with THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA, Beginning Tonight

The Case Western Reserve University/Cleveland Play House (CWRU/CPH) MFA Acting Program will open its 20th Anniversary season with Shakespeare's delightful comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona in the Helen Rosenfeld Lewis Bialosky Lab Theatre (The Helen) for 10 performances, tonight, February 10, through February 20, 2016. Directed by Paul Mullins, this show will be the final production for the Class of 2016.

Ron Wilson, Director of the CPH/CWRU MFA Acting Program states, "I'm very excited about the first production of the 20th Anniversary Season and the final MFA production for our graduating class. These young theater artists are finishing their three years of training in just a few months before embarking on their professional careers in New York City. We're so grateful to have two decades of support for this CWRU/CPH tradition of excellence."

Mullins says, "The Two Gentlemen of Verona is Shakespeare's love play. Love in all its dizzying, maddening, overwhelming, mind bending wonder. For good and for ill, Shakespeare's young characters take a hilarious and sometimes sobering journey as they discover all the facets of this thing called love." In fact, the word "love" is mentioned more times in The Two Gentlemen of Verona than in any other of Shakespeare's plays. It is speculated to be one of the first plays written by Shakespeare, where many themes are explored and continue to appear in later works.

This rollicking comedy tackles fidelity, shifting loyalties, and love run amok. When two young men fall in love with the same woman, their lifelong friendship hangs in the balance. Along the way, you'll meet idiosyncratic servants, a runaway woman disguised as a man, domineering fathers, outlaws, and theatre's most famous-and disobedient-dog.

Two Gentlemen of Verona will take place in The Helen Theatre in Playhouse Square. Single tickets are on sale now for $20 and can be purchased by calling 216-241-6000 or online at www.clevelandplayhouse.com. You can also buy both MFA productions, including Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, for $30 by visiting the State Theatre Ticket Office, or by calling 216-241-6000 and using code MFA30. Groups of 10+ call 216-400-7027 or email jnemecek@clevelandplayhouse.com.