Janice L Blixt News

Preparations began in earnest this week as actors, technical artists and staff converged on Jackson, Michigan for the 2012 season of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival. As sets were being built, costumes sewn and sound and lighting artist were hard at work, the full acting company began rehearsals for Shakespeare's Richard III and Love's Labour's Lost as well as George Bernard Shaw's classic Pygmalion. At the same time, advance ticket sales continue to outpace all previous records.

Preparations began in earnest this week as actors, technical artists and staff converged on Jackson, Michigan for the 2012 season of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival. As sets were being built, costumes sewn and sound and lighting artist were hard at work, the full acting company began rehearsals for Shakespeare's Richard III and Love's Labour's Lost as well as George Bernard Shaw's classic Pygmalion. At the same time, advance ticket sales continue to outpace all previous records.

The Michigan Shakespeare Festival, the official Shakespeare Festival of the State of Michigan, has announced that award winning actor Stacy Keach, regarded as perhaps America's greatest interpreter of the Bard's greatest roles, has given his support to the MSF mission and 2012 season. Currently starring on Broadway in John Robin Baitz's Tony-nominated "Other Desert Cities," the well known TV, stage, and film actor is excited to lend his voice to the Michigan Shakespeare Festival's renewed outreach both in Michigan and the Midwest.

This past week The Michigan Shakespeare Festival held 2012 Season Auditions in Detroit, Jackson, and Chicago. Offers have been made and accepted for some primary roles. Sally Pesetsky, last seen at the MSF as Daisy in Driving Miss Daisy, will be performing as the Duchess of York, the villainous Richard's mother, in Richard III and as Mrs. Higgins, the voice of wit and reason to her son Henry, in Pygmalion. "Sally brings such joy and class to her roles, she's wonderful to work with and I'm elated to have her back in the company," says Artistic Director Janice L Blixt, "I think she'll work very well with David Turrentine-who's playing Richard-and will give a role, that is often about wailing, wonderful dignity."

Romeo & Juliet may be the most famous love story in the English language, but produced by the Michigan Shakespeare Festival and Directed by Janice L. Blixt, deeper relationships are explored. Love in many forms, from volatile Capulet hurting the one he holds most dear, to the defense of a friend at the cost of one‘s own life, to the bumbling affections of a nurse for her ward, can be seen in the interactions of all involved in Verona's ancient feud.