The magic of Venice was in the air at Shakespeare & Company last night. After a stirring performance of The Merchant of Venice, directed by Tina Packer in the Tina Packer Playhouse, it was cocktails, dinner, and dancing under the stars on the beautiful campus of Shakespeare & Company. Guests mingled with actors and dignitaries at the annual Gala and BroadwayWorld was there. The play runs through August 21st. Check out the photos below.
Shakespeare & Company will commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Bard during this 39th performance season with a newly configured theatre, and will debut its first production in-the-round with The Merchant of Venice, directed by Founder Tina Packer and featuring Jonathan Epstein as Shylock. This controversial and poignant play opens the Tina Packer Playhouse on July 1, and runs through August 21.
The FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training continues its 2015-16 season with Shakespeare's iconic MACBETH. An electrifyingly potent tale rife with passion, betrayal, and shadows of the supernatural, MACBETH is esteemed worldwide as a masterpiece of linguistic genius and dramatic brilliance. Since 1849 it has had nearly 50 Broadway runs and over 10 adaptations for film and television in the U.S. and around the world. It has been adapted into numerous books, has had dozens of performances on the radio, and has influenced artistic pieces by Henry Fuseli, Johann Zoffany, and others. Directed by Shakespeare expert Jonathan Epstein, MACBETH previews in the Cook Theatre at the FSU Center for Performing Arts on Tuesday, February 23 at 7:30pm with a special 'Pay What You Can Performance,' officially opens on Wednesday, February 24 at 7:30pm, and runs through Sunday, March 13.
Shakespeare & Company has announced its lineup for the 2016 summer season, which includes three Shakespeare plays: The Merchant of Venice, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Twelfth Night, plus the Regional Premieres of Or, by Liz Duffy Adams, and Lauren Gunderson's The Taming. Additional titles include Ugly Lies the Bone by Lindsey Ferrentino a bracing drama fresh from an acclaimed Off-Broadway production, Sotto Voce by Pulitzer Prize winner Nilo Cruz, and the return of Stephan Wolfert in Cry 'Havoc!'
Today, March 16, 2015, Asolo Repertory Theatre and the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training announced their highly anticipated 2015-16 seasons with a special presentation in the Mertz Theatre.
The OBIE Award winning play AN ILIAD comes to Shakespeare & Company with Michael F. Toomey starring as The Poet in this one-man tour-de-force. Award winning actor and director Jonathan Epstein takes the reins on this fresh take of a timeless classic that also features musician Gregory Boover. Written by Lisa Peterson and Denis O'Hare, this carefully crafted and expansive tale based on Homer's epic poem explores the topic of whether anything has really changed since the Trojan War. Previews began October 3 and performances run through November 1 in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!
Today, March 16, 2015, Asolo Repertory Theatre and the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training announced their highly anticipated 2015-16 seasons with a special presentation in the Mertz Theatre.
A sweeping spectacle of bawdy buffoonery and bloody rebellion, director Jonathan Epstein's razor sharp and condensed adaptation of Henry IV delivers both parts in one dynamic evening of theatre at Shakespeare & Company. Performances run in the Tina Packer Playhouse today, August 2 - August 31. Press Opening is Friday, August 7, at 7:00pm. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the cast in rehearsal below!
A sweeping spectacle of bawdy buffoonery and bloody rebellion, director Jonathan Epstein's razor sharp and condensed adaptation of Henry IV delivers both parts in one dynamic evening of theatre at Shakespeare & Company. Performances run in the Tina Packer Playhouse August 2 - August 31. Press Opening is Friday, August 7, at 7:00pm. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the cast in rehearsal below!
A sweeping spectacle of bawdy buffoonery and bloody rebellion, director Jonathan Epstein's razor sharp and condensed adaptation of Henry IV delivers both parts in one dynamic evening of theatre. Performances run in the Tina Packer Playhouse August 2 - August 31. Press Opening is Friday, August 7, at 7:00pm. To RSVP or for interview opportunities contact Communications & Press Director Elizabeth Aspenlieder: aspenlieder@shakespeare.org.
Casting for Shakespeare & Company's upcoming Summer Performance Season was finalized last week which includes a roster of audience favorites, critics' top picks and a bevy of newcomers joining the Company's ranks in this celebratory season in honor of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth. See play titles, casting, Press Openings and full schedules for each production listed below.
On Tuesday, March 18, 2014, Asolo Repertory Theatre announced its 2014-2015 season and the third season of its ambitious five-year American Character Project, an in-depth exploration of the soul of this country's people, past and present. Producing Artistic Director Michael Donald Edwards and FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training Director/Asolo Rep Associate Artistic Director Rep Greg Leaming presented both season line-ups to more than 350 patrons in Asolo Rep's Mertz Theatre.
Singer Karyn Levitt, with pianist Eric Ostling, will perform Eric Bentley's Brecht-Eisler Song Book, a unique evening that features the songs of Austrian composer Hanns Eisler (1898-1962), set to poetry by Bertolt Brecht and other noted writers, in English versions by Eric Bentley, Monday February 3 at 7:30 PM at the Leonard Nimoy Thalia/Symphony Space, 2537 Broadway (entrance on 95th Street). Eric Bentley, now 97 years old, is the first translator into English of Brecht's plays and poems, introducing Brecht's work to American stages in the 1940's and 50's. Bentley has now unlocked Hanns Eisler's starkly beautiful songs, many set to poems by Brecht, to be performed by soprano Karyn Levitt, with whom he has worked closely since 2011.
At Shakespeare & Company the fusion of a classical concert with a dramatic story explores the relationship between Tchaikovsky and Mrs. von Meck. Much -though not all- is revealed in this story about the composer vis his letters, his music and the intertwining of theatre, music and dance.
Leave it to Artistic Director Tony Simotes and Shakespeare & Company's irreverent 'master of wit' Kevin G. Coleman to bring audiences one the funniest plays Stoppard has put his pen to in the Company's 36th Performance Season with HEROES. Written by Gerald Sibleyras and translated by Tom Stoppard, the show, directed by Coleman, boasts a stalwart trio of actors including Jonathan Epstein, Malcolm Ingram and Robert Lohbauer in this auspicious comedy. Heroes runs now through September 1, in S&Co.'s Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre. BroadwayWorld has a first look at the cast in action below!
