UNTO THE BREACH!, THE TAMING OF THE SHREW and More Set for Tennessee Shakespeare's 6th Season

Tennessee Shakespeare Company (TSC), the Mid-South's professional classical theatre, today announced its 2013-14 schedule of plays and education schools tour.

Following the record-breaking success of its fifth performance season, TSC was informed last month that its matching civic funding for its vast education programs in its community was being entirely eliminated. That same week, the National Endowment for the Arts/ArtsMidwest recognized TSC for its innovative education and performance programming with a matching Shakespeare in American Communities grant. TSC was one of the youngest organizations to receive the recognition.

In a matter of days, the grant was matched by Shakespeare supporters from Germantown, Memphis, the Mid-South, and from across the U.S. Letters from over 200 supporters to TSC and its community's elected officials, together with their generosity, inspired a different type of beginning to TSC's sixth season.

"It has been our mission since day one, and our responsibility to our community, that we always provide innovative educational student programming together with our professional Shakespeare productions at deep discount, or for free," says founder and producing artistic director Dan McCleary. "I never want money to be the thing that prevents our community's students from having a chance to love the plays of William Shakespeare and to learn from them on their own terms. And yes, for the record, I do believe Shakespeare can change the world for the better, and I'm starting with my hometown.

"Too many of our schools here are defined as 'underprivileged' and "underserved.' So, we have work to do; and as long as we have 80 schools and nearly 15,000 students who want us teaching them and playing for them, like last year, then we will be determined to fill the breach created by the elimination of our municipal government funding for the coming season. If I have learned anything from my involvement in the plays of William Shakespeare in 25 years and from our galvanizing TSC supporters these past two months, it is that artistic courage and social activism, particularly in the face of adversity, can affect positive change."

Unto the Breach!

The Un-Common Courage of William Shakespeare

Substituting for its usual full-cast production of a Shakespeare play in the autumn is a special two-performance Benefit show in the 824-seat Germantown Performing Arts Center/Duncan-Williams Performance Hall to help restore education funding to our community's classrooms. Ticket revenue will go to TSC's education program.

Unto the Breach! the Un-Common Courage of William Shakespeare will feature Dan McCleary and resident artist/Education Director Stephanie Shine on stage with music in this 90-minute exploration of Shakespeare's courage of creativity, of the heart, of conviction, and of forgiveness. Scenes will be performed from plays Richard III, King Lear, Love's Labor's Lost, Twelfth Night, Coriolanus, The Merchant of Venice, The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, As You Like It and more.

The Benefit show plays Saturday, September 7 at 7:30 pm and Tuesday, September 10 at 7:00 pm. A special all-school matinee with discounted tickets will be made possible by TSC's sponsors on September 10 at 10:30 am at GPAC.

McCleary and Shine (Gertrude in TSC's acclaimed Hamlet) take the stage for the first time together. A real-life married couple brought together by Shakespeare, both have more than 55 years of experience playing most of the canon, including 30 major/title roles.

Benefit tickets are $30, and seating is general admission. A special Free Will Kids' Night is in effect for both performances: Children 17 years and younger will be admitted FREE when accompanied by a paying, attending guardian. Limit: four children per guardian. Press Opening is September 7 at 7:30 pm.

Unto the Breach! is supported and partnered by The Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, ArtsMemphis, Nancy and Dan Copp, Independent Bank, Milton T. Schaeffer, and GPAC/Duncan-Williams Performance Hall.

It's a Wonderful Life:

A Live Radio Play

Back by popular demand is last year's holiday hit It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play playing November 20 - December 8, 2013, in the Winegardner Auditorium at Dixon Gallery & Gardens in Memphis, directed by Stephanie Shine.

Sponsored by FedEx Corporation and adapted for the stage by Joe Landry, It's a Wonderful Life returns the Bailey family to the stage to celebrate everyone's end-of-year holidays. The loving classic that embraces the beset George Bailey as he discovers how wonderful his life really is transfers from the famous black-and-white film version to a live 1946 radio play, complete with period jingles, carols, and creative sound effects. Returning cast: Amelia Fischer, Bradley Kroeker, Lorraine Cotton, and WKNO's Jim Eikner as Clarence Oddbody, Angel 2nd Class.

Tickets for the November 20 Preview performance are $15. Free Will Kids' Nights are on November 21, 28, and December 5. WKNO Memphis public radio will broadcast the November 21 performance live on 91.1 FM at 7:00 pm. Press Opening isNovember 21 at 7:00 pm.

Romeo and Juliet

Made possible by the National Endowment for the Arts/ArtsMidwest and Shakespeare in American Communities, William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet plays Germantown Performing Arts Center/Duncan-Williams Performance Hall on January 28 and 30 at 7:00 pm, directed by Stephanie Shine. Three, discounted morning matinees that week for school students will also be made available.

Experience the full-bodied love story as if for the first time with these professional, young players. The play everyone is introduced to in their early teen years on the page comes vibrantly alive on the GPAC stage as a cast of eight explores the mortal acts of too-young lovers who bury their parents' strife with their lives.

This production is inspired by TSC's innovative Romeo and Juliet Project, which has been raising grades, changing young lives, and affecting entire student bodies throughout the Memphis area for two years.

Parents are invited to discover with their children all of the heart-felt, or well-intentioned, or tragic decisions made by the play's teenagers and adults alike in this "two hours traffic of our stage," followed by a community forum with the audience, actors, and director.

A special Free Will Kids' Night is in effect for both performances: Children 17 years and younger will be admitted FREE when accompanied by a paying, attending guardian. Limit: four children per guardian. Press Opening is January 28 at 7:00 pm.

Fifth Annual Valentine's Gala

Save the Date with your special someone at GPAC on February 14, 2014! Broadway celebrities Charles Strouse and Marin Mazzie & Jason Danieley have taken center stage the last two years. Guess who's romancing you this year! (We will announce soon.) Singular live/silent auction items and trips, sumptuous fare, flowing spirits, and a once-in-a-lifetime performance will make this a night to remember.

Don't miss the Fifth Annual Valentine's Gala -the most original, fun party of the year! For single tickets and sponsorships of ten seats, please call TSC's Development Office at (901) 759-0620.

The Taming of the Shrew

William Shakespeare's early commedia piece The Taming of the Shrew, directed by Dan McCleary, plays inside the Dixon's Winegardner Auditorium from April 23 - May 4, 2014, in Memphis.

One of Shakespeare's most outrageously funny and controversial plays shows up quite by accident on the 1927 doorstep of Mr. Hugo Dixon of Memphis, Tennessee. He hires the traveling theatre troupe to perform a play for mirth and merriment in his luxurious home, which one day will become Dixon Gallery & Gardens.

In the play, Kate neither looks nor acts like her younger, alluring sister Bianca - nor any other woman, for that matter. This is bad news for Bianca, since she cannot wed until Kate does. Any man who's man enough to tackle the shrewish Kate wins a wealthy dowry, says her father, but is Kate too high a price to pay? Not for the recently destitute Petruchio. He arrives looking to wed for riches, not love. The meeting of Petruchio and Kate is one of the hallmark scenes in all of theatre.

But something happens after their name-calling, arm-wrestling, horse-riding, sleep-deprived, mutually-starved trip to the altar - they inexplicably fall in love.

Tickets for the April 23-24 Preview performances are $15. Free Will Kids' Nights are on April 24 and May 1. Press Opening is April 25 at 7:00 pm.

Sponsored by Ann and Wellford Tabor, and The Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence.

The Mid-South Schools Tour:

Shake(s), Rattle & Roll

It's hip. It's cool. It's an adventure with the original SOUL MAN! Students will discover chart-topping, toe-tapping, feet-stomping, got-to-jump-out-of-your-seat-and-move-with-it SHAKESPEARE - direct from Memphis! Resident actors Slade Kyle and Eva Balistrieri (Ophelia in last year's Hamlet) play with breathtaking dexterity through a whirlwind of scenes and soliloquies sure to make students want to SHOUT!

Directed and created by Stephanie Shine, Shake(s), Rattle & Roll is a 45-minute show, with accompanying talk-back, that travels to schools in the Mid-South, across Tennessee, and throughout the Southeast from October 2013 through April 2014. Call TSC's Education Office to book your school or class at (901) 759-0620.

General Admission tickets are on sale now, Monday - Friday, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm at TSC's office located at 2260 West Street, Germantown, TN 38138; by calling 901-759-0604, or by going on-line to www.tnshakespeare.org (Twitter: @tnshakespeare).

Tickets for all non-Gala performances are $30. Tickets for all Preview performances are only $15. All Thursday nights are Free Will Kids' Nights: Children 17 years and younger are admitted FREE when accompanied by a paying/attending guardian. All performances of Unto the Breach! and Romeo and Juliet are Free Will Kids' Nights. Dixon members receive 20% off their tickets for all Dixon performances. Seniors and Students receive 20% of their tickets to any non-Gala performance. No refunds/exchanges.

Performances are general admission; first come/first seated. Free parking. Cast/schedule subject to change. All Opening Nights include a complementary post-show dessert and champagne toast with the actors.

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