Shakespeare Dallas's 'COMPLETE WORKS' Launches Final Season

"Can one desire too much of a good thing?"

A good thing will soon come to an end as Shakespeare Dallas's joint collaboration with the AT&T Performing Arts Center begins its final season. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare comes to a close with a mix of classic Shakespearean comedies and tragedies.

Each performance will feature a staged reading of the play in its entirety. The performances will be at various ATTPAC theaters, with a range in capacity from 200-400 seats per performance, based on the theater. The 2016-2017 season will launch with Shakespeare's As You Like It in late October.

A tale of sibling rivalry, young love, and elaborate disguises, As You Like It tells the story of Rosalind, the daughter of a banished duke who falls in love with Orlando, the disinherited son of one of the duke's friends. When she is banished from the court by her usurping uncle, Rosalind takes on the appearance of a boy calling herself Ganymede. She travels with her cousin Celia and the jester Touchstone to the Forest of Arden, where her father and his friends live in exile. Mistaken identities and family reunions abound, until the final scene when Orlando, Rosalind, and several other couples are all married, and the exiled Duke can rule once again.

The schedule for the 2016-17 season is as follows:

October 23 & 24, 2016

As You Like It (to be performed at the Wyly Theatre located on the 6th floor)

December 18 & 19, 2016

Pericles (to be performed at Hammon Hall)

January 8 & 9, 2017

Cymbeline (to be performed at Hammon Hall)

March 12 & 13, 2017

King Lear (to be performed at the Wyly Theatre located on the 6th floor)

March 26 & 27, 2017

All's Well That Ends Well (to be performed at the Wyly Theatre located on the 6th floor)

April 9 & 10, 2017

Love's Labour's Lost (to be performed at the Wyly Theatre located on the 6th floor)

May 7 & 8, 2017

The Tempest (to be performed at the Wyly Theatre located on the 6th floor)

May 28, 2017

Sonnets (to be performed on the Potter Rose main stage at the Wyly Theatre - 400 capacity)

Performance times are 3 p.m. on Sundays and 7 p.m. on Mondays, unless otherwise noted.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare represents a five-year collaboration between Shakespeare Dallas and ATTPAC to perform staged readings of all of Shakespeare's plays and sonnets. The performances, using simple props, lighting and costumes to keep the focus on the text, are funded by the Mankoff Family Foundation.

Advance admission is $10 through the AT&T Performing Arts Center website, www.attpac.org or you can pay $10 at the door. Students get in free with a valid ID one hour before each performance.

Inspired by the egalitarian nature of the New York Shakespeare Festival, Robert "Bob" Glenn started The Shakespeare Festival of Dallas in 1971 as a free summer Shakespeare Festival. The company serves the community as one of North Texas' most treasured cultural institutions and the area's only producer of an education program focused on teaching Shakespeare. In 2005, the company revamped its operations and branded the organization "Shakespeare Dallas" to illustrate the company's new direction of year-round, affordable and accessible programming. Shakespeare Dallas aspires to use the works of William Shakespeare as a catalyst for creating unparalleled artistic and educational programs that are meaningful and enriching for the community it serves throughout North Texas. For more information, visit www.shakespearedallas.org.

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