Photo Flash: 2017 Houston Shakespeare Festival Presents TWELFTH NIGHT and RICHARD III

This summer, the annual Houston Shakespeare Festival presents TWELFTH NIGHT and RICHARD III, free and open to the public. The festival runs July 28 - August 6. TWELFTH NIGHT performances are 8:15 p.m. on July 28, 30, August 1, 3, 5 and RICHARD III performances are 8:15 p.m July 29, August 2, 4, 6 at Hermann Park's Miller Outdoor Theatre (6000 Hermann Park Drive). Rain or shine, the shows will go on! BroadwayWorld has a glimpse of the cast in action below.

TWELFTH NIGHT, Shakespeare's intoxicating comedy ponders love lost and found. Mistaken identities and role reversals abound in one of Shakespeare's most inventive romantic romps. A shipwreck separates twins Viola and Sebastian, but tragedy quickly turns to comedy when they wash up in a land turned upside-down by love. Artistic Director Jack Young directs this relentless pursuit of unrequited love with gender-bending wit, drunken high jinks and swooning serenades.

TWELFTH NIGHT performances are 8:15 p.m. on July 28, 30, August 1, 3, 5. This is a ticketed event for the covered seating area. Free tickets are available (4 per person over age 16 while they last), at the Miller Outdoor Theatre box office, the day of the performance between the hours of 10:30 am and 1 p.m. If tickets remain at 1 p.m., the box office will re-open one hour before show time to distribute the remaining tickets. As always, open seating on the hill.

And the relentless ambition of Richard Plantaganet dominates the stage in RICHARD III - a fast-paced roller-coaster ride of political maneuvers, media manipulation and pushing one's luck beyond the breaking point. The Wars of the Roses have put Edward IV on the throne, with his brother Richard having done much of the dirty work. But, while everyone else is ready to squabble over the courtly pecking order, Richard's ambitions haven't yet been satisfied. Lenny Banovez, artistic director of New York City's award-winning TITAN Theatre Company, directs the story of Richard's murderous path to the crown.

RICHARD III performances are 8:15 p.m July 29, August 2, 4, 6. Like the TWELFTH NIGHT performances, for those interested in securing place in the covered seating area, free tickets are available (4 per person over age 16 while they last) at the Miller Outdoor Theatre box office the day of the performance between 10:30 am and 1 p.m. If tickets remain at 1 p.m., the box office will re-open one hour before show time to distribute the remaining tickets. No tickets are necessary for seating on the hill.

The Houston Shakespeare Festival (HSF) uses Shakespeare's works to draw together Houston's diverse community to explore our common humanity. HSF debuted in 1975 when Sidney Berger, former director of the School of Theatre and Dance at the University of Houston, met with UH administrators and the Miller Theatre Advisory Board about a two-production season of Shakespeare's works to be played in repertory on Miller Theatre's bill. Berger and UH theatre professor Cecil Pickett went on to direct a pair of plays each summer in this unique collaboration between a city and a university. For information on other upcoming UH Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts events, visit uh.edu/cota/events.

HOUSTON SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL. July 28 - August 6. Miller Outdoor Theatre, 6000 Hermann Park Drive. For more information, please call 713-743-3388 or visit houstonfestivalscompany.com. FREE.

Carlton Warnberg (Richmond), Jack Young (Richard III), and Meg Rodgers (Queen Elizabeth) in RICHARD III. 2017 Houston Shakespeare Festival/Photo by Brian Boeckman

Tracie Thomason (Viola/ Cesario) and Dylan Paul (Duke Orsino) in TWELFTH NIGHT. 2017 Houston Shakespeare Festival/Photo by Brian Boeckman

Clockwise from center top: Jake Offen (Sir Toby Belch), Abraham Ntonya (Fabian), Patrick Poole (Malvolio), and Carlton Warnberg (Sir Andrew Aguecheek) in TWELFTH NIGHT. 2017 Houston Shakespeare Festival/Photo by Brian Boeckman

Tracie Thomason (Viola/ Cesario) and Dylan Paul (Duke Orsino) in TWELFTH NIGHT. 2017 Houston Shakespeare Festival/Photo by Brian Boeckman

Jack Young as Richard III in the 2017 Houston Shakespeare Festival production of RICHARD III. Photo credit: Brian Boeckman