THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA Set for New Orleans Shakespeare Festival

This summer the Festival will present Shakespeare's beloved comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona, which gives us some of the Bard's most memorable and hilarious moments. Proteus has a devoted best friend and a girlfriend who adores him, but all that changes when he meets Sylvia. Cross-dressing, music, outlaws, broken hearts, and a scene-stealing dog make this one of Shakespeare's most delightful comedies.

Featuring a posh contemporary design and a hip young cast, this production will delight Shakespeare purists as well as those who are new to the Bard. 400 years later, The Two Gentlemen of Verona still captures the misguided foibles of young love!

The cast features some of the region's most talented and dynamic actors. Levi Hood and Kyle Woods play the title characters. Both men are graduates of UNO and have received numerous accolades for their recent work on New Orleans stages. Devyn Tyler stars as Julia, the play's heroine. Ms. Tyler is a New Orleans native who recently graduated from Columbia University. Her credits include featured roles in Twelve Years a Slave as well as the recent hit WGN series Underground. As impressive as this cast may be, the human actors might be upstaged by the real star of the show: Pippa the dog in the role of Crab. The full cast and their bios can be found here: http://neworleansshakespeare.org/performers/

Jessica Podewell, the show's director, is a New Orleans native and has directed and acted in theatres throughout Austin, Chicago, and New York. She is the Literary Manager at Southern Rep and runs the Lagniappe New Work programs 3×3 and 6×6. As an actor she was last seen in Lisa D'Amour's Detroit, which won a 2015 Big Easy. As a director she directed The Importance of Being Earnest for the Festival and just directed The NOLA Project's production of Don Quixote at the NOMA's Besthoff Sculpture Garden. She is a proud founding member and current Artistic Director of the New Orleans summer children's theatre The Patchwork Players, and serves as a Professor of Practice in Tulane University's Department of Theatre and Dance. She also happens to be the daughter of Festival co-founder, the late Dr. Buzz Podewell.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona will run from June 18 - July 2 in the Lupin Theater on the Tulane Uptown campus. 7:30 pm performances will be held on June 18, 23, 24, 25, 30, July 1, and July 2. 1:30 pm matinees will be held on June 19, 26, and July 2. General admission tickets are $30. Discounts are available for students, seniors, and Tulane employees. Runtime is approximately two hours, including one fifteen-minute intermission. More details can be found at www.neworleansshakespeare.org .