New Orleans Shakespeare Festival Announced At Tulane

Having just completed a production of Macbeth that reached over 5000 area middle and high school students in January, the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane is now preparing for its 26th summer season. The Festival continues to be one of the south's premier producers of Shakespeare's plays.

On the mainstage: The Festival will open its season with the delightful comedy Much Ado About Nothing. Not seen on the Festival stage since 1994, this Shakespearean favorite will run from June 14-30, 2019. It will be followed by the timeless story of Hamlet, which will run from July 12-28, 2019.

The season will also bring several Lagniappe events:

A two night reprisal of a musical cabaret, The Food of Love, starring Leslie Castay,

presented on Sunday evenings June 14th and 21st, 2019 A unique one man presentation of Henry V; conceived and performed by Austin native

Robert Faires on June 25th and 26th, 2019 An improvisational spoof of King Lear presented by The NOLA Project's By Any Scenes

Necessary team on July 17th, 2019

This season will offer our audiences a variety of unique approaches to Shakespeare. The miracle of Shakespeare's brilliant stories is that the plots, characters and even the language are still completely relevant to our world. Martin Sachs, the Festival's Artistic Director.

The Festival will open its 26th summer season by producing Shakespeare's comedy Much Ado About Nothing for the first time since 1994. One of the most beloved of Shakespeare's comedies, this play thrusts audiences into the middle of the battle of the sexes as friends and enemies wreak havoc in the love lives of two couples. BurtonTedesco will direct.

In July, the Festival will produce Hamlet; arguably Shakespeare's most famous tragedy. Clare Moncrief will direct.

The Festival will round out the season with a few limited-run events, including:

The Food of Love: The Ballad, The Broad, and The Bard

Broadway veteran Leslie Castay reprises her hit cabaret from last season featuring songs inspired by Shakespeare.

A one man show presenting Henry V, conceived and performed by Austin native Robert Faires. Robert Faires' performance in a pared down Henry V is an exquisitely simple and thoughtful evening of theatre, one that will send audiences away feeling smarter than when we came in. Elizabeth Cobbe, The Austin Chronicle

Lastly, the Festival is partnering with The NOLA Project for By Any Scenes Necessary - a riotous theatre/improv hybrid that will attempt to recreate Shakespeare's King Lear...without a script.

The 26th season of the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane will run from June 14-July 28 in the Lupin Theater on the Tulane uptown campus. All performances are at 7:30 pm, except for 1:30 pm matinees on Sundays.

Ticket information and more details can be found at www.neworleansshakespeare.org .

The mission of the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at Tulane is to produce professional, classical theatre with a primary focus upon the works of William Shakespeare. Our commitment is to utilize local, national, and international talent to create dynamic, visceral, text-based performances celebrating Shakespeare's brilliant insight into the human condition. With this programming we will provide to the people of the Gulf South both entertainment and educational resources of the highest quality, honoring Shakespeare's legacy.

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