Michigan Shakespeare Festival Launches 21st Season This Week

This week launches the 21st season of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival with performances of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Henry IV, followed next week by the romantic comedy The Rivals.

The most award-winning theatre in the state, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival is a professional Actors Equity Association-LORT theatre festival, featuring all-professional actors, artistic staff, and technicians. Reviews called last season's productions "Outstanding" (MLive), "You may never again see this play done so well" (Encore Michigan), "Remarkably relevant" (Examiner), "Four out of Four stars" (Detroit Free Press), and "Exquisite... gorgeous...perfect" (Jackson Citizen Patriot). Last season's Hamlet was named by BroadwayWorld as Best Shakespearean Production of 2014, and the MSF won 4 Wilde Awards, including both Best Comedy and Best of the Bard.

"The course of true love never did run smooth." - Starring lovers, clowns, and the King and the Queen of the Faeries, A Midsummer Night's Dream is a glorious favorite of Shakespeare's canon full of romantic comedy, giddy wit, and enchantment.

"Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown." - A powerful father is disappointed in his eldest son even as England falls into civil war. Henry IV is a King troubled by rebellion, both of his nobles and his own heir.

''Tis safest in matrimony to begin with a little aversion.'' - Replete with disguises, mistaken identities, and malaprops aplenty, Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals is a rollicking romantic comedy of wit and manners.

Since 1995, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival has made a commitment to the highest standards of artistic quality and in 2003, the Governor and State Senate designated the event as the official Shakespeare festival of Michigan.

The Festival maintains high artistic professional standards, resulting in top quality productions utilizing artists of the highest caliber. This July 9- August 16, 2015 we will offer William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream and Henry IV, along with Richard Brinsley Sheridan's The Rivals, at two venues, Jackson and Canton.

"So many new adventures this season: a brand new adaptation of the Henry IVs into one show, The Rivals, a foray into Wayne County-we are both crazy excited and crazy proud." Said Producing Artistic Director Janice L Blixt.

This season is expanding this year, beginning with previews and openings at the Baughman Theatre in Jackson from July 9 - 19, then running at the Village Theater of Cherry Hill in Canton, July 29 - August 16.

"I'm thrilled for this expansion into Canton and being able to share our shows with a larger audience. We love our home in Jackson, but being able to bring what we do to another location in this great state of Michigan." Said Artistic Associate and Festival Composer Kate Hopgood.

Tickets and more information are available atwww.MichiganShakespeareFestival.com.