KING LEAR Announced At Beck Center For The Arts

Beck Center for the Arts is pleased to produce William Shakespeare's King Lear, directed by regional talent Eric Schmiedl. This limited engagement runs May 31 to June 30 in the Studio Theater. This intimate performance space puts the audience in the middle of this regal family drama. Show times are 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Sundays. Buy early and save with promo code: MADNESS to receive $5 off each adult/senior ticket purchased by May 30, 2019. Preview performance is the Thursday before opening night, May 31. Tickets range from $10 Smart Seats to $33 each. Group and student discounts are available. Tickets are on sale now.

Eric Schmiedl, director of King Lear, says this production "has real resonance today. Redemption and retribution (or violence) - really drive this play. We will be embracing an honest and story-based approach to the play. Our central goals will be clarity and honesty. For this reason, it will not be a heavily stylized approach." Wanting a cast that works as a company and a tight ensemble helps Mr. Schmiedl make bold and fresh choices, such as "casting the traditionally male role of Gloucester with Anne McEvoy for two reasons: 1.) She was the best person for the role 2.) The play has two parallel stories of mistreated parents and the comparison of a father and his daughters (LEAR) and a mother and her sons (GLOUCESTER) is very interesting and dramatic."

Eric Schmiedl is a native of Cleveland, Ohio and a graduate of Kent State University and the University of Hawai'i. His plays for children and adult audiences have been produced by theatres including Cleveland Play House, Denver Center Theatre Company, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Cleveland Public Theatre, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, New Stages Theatre, the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, the Oregon Children's Theatre, Karamu House, Great Lakes Theater, and BackStage Theatre in Chicago. He is currently working on a new original play with his wife, Nigerian storyteller Adaora Nzelibe Schmiedl, to be developed through Playhouse Square's Innovative Launch program. Eric is the recipient of a 2012 Creative Workforce Fellowship as well as an Aurand Harris Fellowship, an Edgerton Award, and a Sloan Foundation Commission.

The cast includes Robert Hawkes as King Lear, Julia Kolibab as Goneril, Brian Pedaci as Alban, Lisa Louise Langford as Regan, Rodney Freeman as Cornwall, Danyel Renee Geddie as Cordelia, David Hansen as Kent, Anne McEvoy as Gloucester, James Rankin as Edgar, Daniel Telford as Edmund, among others.

Beck Center is located at 17801 Detroit Avenue in Lakewood, just ten minutes west of downtown Cleveland. Free onsite parking is available. For more information visit beckcenter.org or call Beck Center Customer Service at 216.521.2540 x10. This production is sponsored by Corrigan & Krause.

Programming at Beck Center for the Arts is made possible through the generous support of the Ohio Arts Council. Beck Center gratefully acknowledges the generous funding provided by the citizens of Cuyahoga County through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture.

Beck Center for the Arts is a not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization that offers professional theater productions on two stages, arts education programming in dance, music, theater, visual arts, early childhood, and creative arts therapies for individuals with special needs, free gallery exhibits year-round, and outreach education programming.