Actors' Theatre Announces 2018 Season in Schiller Park
Actors' Theatre of Columbus is excited to announce its upcoming 2018 summer play series, Monsters & Men, a boisterous romp through all the things that we're afraid of - murder most foul; melancholy monsters; talking tomcats; and feuding fairies.
ATC's 2018 performance season is bookended with Shakespeare's two classic plays of magic and transformation featuring Macbeth (May 24 - June 17) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (August 9 - September 2), plus Richard Brinsley Peake's adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (June 21 - July 15), and Ludwig Tieck's Puss-in-Boots (July 19 - August 5).
MACBETH (Directed by Philip J. Hickman) - The Tragedy of Macbeth, King of Scotland is one of a handful of William Shakespeare's plays that has never wavered in its popularity or relevance. Led by supernatural forces, Macbeth kills a king and usurps the throne, each day growing in paranoia and bloody murder. His wife, the famous Lady Macbeth, guides and goads her lord husband in his evil acts until the consequences begin to break her soul. The Tragedy of Macbeth is a story of witches, dread, and murder most foul.
FRANKENSTEIN (Adapted by Richard Brinsley Peake, Directed by Mandy Fox) - Appearing on the English stage only five years after Mary Shelly's groundbreaking novel Frankenstein; or the Modern Prometheus, Richard Brinsley Peake's Frankenstein, or the Dangers of Presumption is the first adaptation of that venerable novel. Peake's monster is an early version of the horror that would star in more than 50 films in the last 100 years. Frankenstein was such a hit in the theaters that the publisher of Shelley's novel produced a second edition, and the place of that novel in the English canon was secured. Several stage imitators followed in the decade after Peake's 1823 play, but this play endures as the original stage version of Frankenstein.
PUSS-IN-BOOTS (Directed by Philip J. Hickman and Adam Simon) - Puss-in-Boots, or the Master Cat is one of the great fairy tales in Western literature. First put to paper by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in the 1550s, Puss-in-Boots is the story of a talking cat who serves his poor owner by his wits, making his master wealthy, finding him love, and stealing him a kingdom. Ludwig Tieck's 1797 stage version of the play, first performed in German, is a brilliant amalgam of the fairy tale, children's theater, and social satire. Rarely performed in the United States, Tieck's Puss-in-Boots, a Fairy Tale for Children is a joyous early example of absurdist theater.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM (Directed by Jennifer Feather Youngblood) - A Midsummer Night's Dream is William Shakespeare writing comedy, romance, and magic at their finest. Often cited as the play that led people to a life-long love of Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream has a special place in the history of Actors' Theatre of Columbus, being the first play ever performed by the company in Schiller Park.
"The summer of 2018 will be a time to come together at the Schiller Park amphitheater and revel in the madness and magic of Monsters & Men," shares Artistic Director Philip J. Hickman.
Outdoor summer shows are free and open to the public, though donations are encouraged and vital to the continued success of Actors' Theatre. Memberships with Actors' Theatre are also available by visiting www.theactorstheatre.org/membership/.
Support for Actors' Theatre is made possible by the Greater Columbus Arts Council, the Ohio Arts Council, The Columbus Foundation, Columbus Recreation and Parks Department, the German Village Society, and WCBE 90.5 FM.
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