George Mount News

 Casting is announced for Seattle Shakespeare Company's free Wooden O productions of King Lear and The Merry Wives of Windsor which start performances on Thursday, July 12. Both productions will perform in park venues throughout King and Pierce Counties (please see attached schedule). This summer marks the 25th Anniversary for Wooden O productions in the parks.

During the curtain speech Seattle Shakespeare Company Artistic Director (and director of the night's show) George Mount and Managing Director John Bradshaw joked on how they don't often get to present a Washington premiere since they usually deal in 400-year-old plays. What they also don't usually contend with is the trend of turning every successful movie into a theatrical endeavor but here we are with the Seattle Shakespeare Company presenting the stage version of 'Shakespeare in Love' based on the 1998 film. Now don't get me wrong, not all stage adaptations are awful and this one seems to be almost directly lifted from the wonderful Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard screenplay by the adapter Lee Hall so the script isn't entirely the problem here. No, the problems I have are threefold and amount to two very egregious things for a show entitled 'Shakespeare in Love'. There's not enough 'Shakespeare' and not enough 'Love'. But let's start from the top.

Seattle Shakespeare Company closes its 2017-2018 season with Shakespeare in Love, the delightful new stage adaptation of Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard's Academy Award-winning film. This warm and witty romantic comedy will be helmed by Seattle Shakespeare Company's Artistic Director George Mount. Originally produced by Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions and adapted for the stage by Lee Hall with music by Paddy Cuneen, Shakespeare in Love previews May 2 and 3, opens May 4 and runs through June 3 at the Cornish Playhouse at the Seattle Center.

Seattle Shakespeare Company closes its 2017-2018 season with Shakespeare in Love, the delightful new stage adaptation of Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard's Academy Award-winning film. This warm and witty romantic comedy will be helmed by Seattle Shakespeare Company's Artistic Director George Mount. Originally produced by Disney Theatrical Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions and adapted for the stage by Lee Hall with music by Paddy Cuneen, Shakespeare in Love previews May 2 and 3, opens May 4 and runs through June 3 at the Cornish Playhouse at the Seattle Center.

Classical plays with strong female leads make up Seattle Shakespeare Company's upcoming season just announced by Artistic Director George Mount.  Plans for the company's 2018-2019 season include Richard III, Arms and the Man, All's Well That Ends Well, She Stoops to Conquer, and As You Like It. "The thematic narrative for the shows is All's Fair in Love and War," said Mount. "Each of the plays has something to say about the efforts that people go through to get what they want either in the field of combat or the field of romance."

This summer Seattle Shakespeare Company will celebrate 25 years of bringing free Shakespeare to our region's parks with productions of King Lear and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Both shows will start performances on July 12 and will perform in 12 different park venues through August 12. The full schedule of venues, dates and performance times is located on Seattle Shakespeare Company's website.

Are we made by the company we keep? Shakespeare peels away a dark layer to expose human selfishness in a whole new light in the rarely-staged drama Timon of Athens. John Kazanjian directs the play for Seattle Shakespeare Company which runs January 9 through February 4, 2018 at the Center Theatre.

When today's headlines about Russia involve potential political meddling, corruption, and cover-up, it's nice to know that some things don't change and that you can laugh about them.

This rendition of Julius Caesar by the Seattle Shakespeare Company will offer a few surprises. It is a streamlined production with a race and gender-diverse cast. With no clear-cut villains and heroes, this epic tale of political savagery has an engaging narrative. But when said savagery feels tepid, hiccups are more conspicuous, leaving audience members recalling the bad, rather than the good. Now performing at the Cornish Playhouse, Julius Caesar gets the job done, but it's problematic.

It's a 400-year-old play, yet it can feel as contemporary as today's headlines. In Julius Caesar Bloody and brutal decisions are weighed against honor and ambition. Seattle Shakespeare Company's Artistic Director George Mount directs Shakespeare's political thriller which runs now through Oct. 1, 2107 at the Cornish Playhouse. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!

It's a 400 year old play, yet it can feel as contemporary as today's headlines. In Julius Caesar Bloody and brutal decisions are weighed against honor and ambition. Seattle Shakespeare Company's Artistic Director George Mount directs Shakespeare's political thriller which runs Sept. 13-Oct. 1, 2107 at the Cornish Playhouse.  

I've never been a fan of transplanting classic works such as Shakespeare to "new and exciting" locales and time periods but I have seen it work as long as the adaptation enhances the existing story somehow or at the very least makes sense with the story. Unfortunately, Seattle Shakespeare Company's current musical adaptation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" with a 1930's movie musical bent fails on both respects and then some. It's got a few elements in it that work but overall it makes little sense and the added music adds nothing but confusion.

1930s movie musicals about show business serve as the muse for Seattle Shakespeare Company's final production of the 2016-2017 season - A Midsummer Night's Dream.  Seattle Shakespeare Company's Artistic Director George Mount directs Shakespeare's funniest comedy at the Cornish Playhouse which runs May 3-21, 2107.  

After the success of the epic, two-part production of Bring Down the House this past winter, Seattle Shakespeare Company and upstart crow collective have decided to continue to follow the story of the Yorks and Lancasters through to the end with a co-production of Shakespeare's Richard III during Seattle Shakespeare Company's 2018-2019 season.

Intertwining themes of money, power, and love weave through the plays of Seattle Shakespeare Company's upcoming season just announced by Artistic Director George Mount. Plans for the company's 2017-2018 season include Julius Caesar, The Government Inspector, Timon of Athens, The Merchant of Venice, and Shakespeare in Love.

With spring just around the corner, it means the summer isn't too far behind. And with summer comes free Shakespeare in the parks. Seattle Shakespeare Company's free Wooden O productions for summer 2017 will be Much Ado About Nothing and Pericles. Both shows will start performances on July 6 and will perform in park venues throughout the region through August 6.  The full schedule of venues, dates, and performance times is located on Seattle Shakespeare Company's website.

Sixteen actresses, two parts, one epic experience. Bring Down the House thunders on stage in a rotating repertory production January 25-March 12, 2017 at the Center Theatre.

There are some productions of Shakespeare which need all the flashy costumes and sets and transplanting to non-traditional times and places in order to make the show shine. And then there are productions like the outstanding production of "The Winter's Tale" currently being offered from Seattle Shakespeare Company where they've assembled such a talented cast and crew, innately fluent with the meaning of the show, who only require a few chairs and platforms and where the flash would just get in the way. It's those shows that remind us why we love theater when a group of actors can mesmerize us with their words.

A few months back another group in Seattle put up an immersive production of "Romeo and Juliet" that blew me away and finally gave me the chance to see a completely solid production that I liked. But even while watching that I knew that Seattle Shakespeare Company would be closing out their season with their own intimate production of the show and I worried that the chances of getting another great production might be tempting fate or the theater Gods or the odds or whatever. Well unfortunately my fears were well founded as this new staging, while having a few stand out supporting performances, ultimately falls flat with a severe lack of passion or love (crucial for a love story) and an overarching theme that at best feels confusing and tacked on and at worst, pretentious.

Seattle Shakespeare Company presents ROMEO AND JULIET by William Shakespeare, directed by Vanessa Miller, opening this Today, May 6, 2016 and closing May 22, 2016 at the Cornish Playhouse (201 Mercer Street, WA 98109). BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!