Shakespeare by the Sea Announces Virtual Offerings for its 23rd Season

After cancelling it's summer season, Shakespeare by the Sea is announcing its Virtual Offerings for its 23rd Season. To celebrate Halloween, they have pulled out the bloodiest and most violent play in Shakespeare's canon: Titus Andronicus.

The company will be following that up with a play about power, corruption, and sexual blackmail: Measure for Measure. Both productions will be filmed and streamed so that anyone and everyone can participate. SBTS will continue providing professional, memorable theatrical experiences for community audiences everywhere.

Streamed on Saturday, October 31 at 7pm on YouTube, dark, evil and violent Titus Andronicus, was the smash-hit of Shakespeare's early career. Roman general Titus Andronicus returns victorious from 10 years of war, his archnemesis Tamora Queen of the Goths in tow and in chains. But when Rome's rash and impetuous new Emperor decides not only to free her, but to marry her and make her his queen, she embarks upon a remorseless course of revenge. As she and Titus engage in an escalating cycle of violence and vengeance, the body count rises and Rome threatens to fall.

At the helm is director Stephanie Coltrin, who returns to SBTS for her 11th consecutive season. Coltrin has over 200 productions to her credit, ranging from musicals to Shakespeare, comedy to drama and World Premieres to critical acclaim. She received a Garland Award Best Director Nomination for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 2010, an Ovation Award for Best Musical for Miss Saigon in 2008, and a Stage Scene LA Award for She Loves Me in 2011. Coltrin has also served as Associate Producer of Shakespeare by the Sea's summer tour since 2012.

Streamed on Saturday, December 12 at 7pm on YouTube, Measure for Measure is Shakespeare's complicated story of virtue vs vice. His city caught in a moral free-fall, the Duke of Vienna hands over power to Lord Angelo, who enforces long-dormant codes of chastity with zealous fervor. When a pious young nun pleads for the life of her condemned brother, Angelo's response is surprisingly sensual. Measure for Measure explores the themes of power corrupting, men in power taking advantage of women, and the dangers of any extremist view. It is a timeless and timely reminder that the #metoo movement was long overdue.

Carefully crafting this morality play is multi talented Patrick Vest, who has been working with SBTS since 2002. Vest is an actor, director, and fight choreographer. He's directed three SBTS summer festival productions: All's Well That Ends Well, A Midsummer Night's Dream, and As You Like It, as well as over 10 Little Fish Theatre productions. He's played such roles as Macbeth, Iago, Malvolio, Mercutio, King John, Caliban, Leontes, Mark Antony, Bottom and many others.

Learn more at www.shakespearebythesea.org.

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