CSC Announces Open Rehearsal Series for ROMEO & JULIET

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Greg Reiner, will present its annual Monday Night Open Rehearsal Series, this year featuring Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. On three Monday evenings - May 13, May 20 and June 3 - different actors and directors will explore the text of Romeo & Juliet, giving theater-goers the opportunity to become part of the discovery process, and experience different acting approaches and directorial interpretations of one of Shakespeare's most cherished plays. CSC will open its 2013/2014 season with a new production of Romeo & Juliet starring Elizabeth Olsen. Here is the line-up for this year's Open Rehearsal series:

Monday, May 13, directed by Tony Speciale
Romeo: Grantham Coleman
Juliet: Elvy Yost
Nurse: Myra Lucretia Taylor
Friar: Brendan Averett

Monday, May 20, directed by Brian Kulick
Romeo: Austin Pendleton
Juliet: Judith Roberts

Monday, June 3, directed by Brian Kulick
Romeo: Steven Skybell
Juliet: Annika Boras

All evenings begin at 7pm. Tickets are $35 and are available at www.classicstage.org or by calling 212-352-3101 or 866-811-4111.

Now in its 45th Anniversary Season, CSC is the award-winning Off-Broadway theatre committed to re-imaging the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience. Founded in 1967, CSC uses works of the past as a way to engage in the issues of today.

Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in American theatre, it has become the home to New York's finest established and emerging artists, the place where they gather to grapple with the great works of the world's repertory from Sophocles to Sondheim. CSC has been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theater awards: Obies, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work.

CSC began its current season with Anton Chekhov's Ivanov, starring Ethan Hawke, Joely Richardson and Juliet Rylance, directed by Austin Pendleton. The theatre recently presented the highly-acclaimed production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Passion, directed by John Doyle, and starring Melissa Errico, Judy Kuhn, and Ryan Silverman. CSC will conclude its season in May with Bertolt Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle, starring Christopher Lloyd, featuring new music by Duncan Sheik, directed by Brian Kulick. Past productions include: Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Bebe Neuwirth; Brecht's Galileo with F. Murray Abraham; Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard with Dianne Wiest and John Turturro; Chekhov's Three Sisters with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jessica Hecht, Juliet Rylance and Peter Sarsgaard; David Ives' The School for Lies with Hamish Linklater; Unnatural Acts conceived by Tony Speciale; Ostrovsky's The Forest with Dianne Wiest and John Douglas Thompson; David Ives' Venus in Fur with Nina Arianda (Broadway transfer 2011/2012, Tony Award nom. Best Play); Shakespeare's The Tempest with Mandy Patinkin; Chekhov's Uncle Vanya with Maggie Gyllenhaal, Denis O'Hare and Peter Sarsgaard; Anne Carson's An Oresteia; Chekhov's The Seagull with Dianne Wiest and Alan Cumming; David Ives' New Jerusalem with Richard Easton; Richard III; Richard II and Hamlet with Michael Cumpsty; Yasmina Reza's A Spanish Play with Zoe Caldwell; Steve Martin's adaptation of The Underpants; Philip Glass's In the Penal Colony; Bill Irwin's adaptation of Texts for Nothing; Waiting for Godot with John Turturro, Tony Shalhoub and Christopher Lloyd; Entertaining Mr. Sloane with Brian Murray; Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party with David Strathairn and Faust Parts I and II, directed by CSC founding Artistic Director Christopher Martin.