Jonathan Epstein News

Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Partnership with UCF invites audiences to take a risk on new plays at PlayFest from November 5 - 8, 2015.

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!

'Eric Bentley's Brecht-Eisler Songbook,' the debut CD from soprano actress Karyn Levitt, will be available from Roven Records on October 30.

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.

No rural area has as many summer stages as the Berkshires of Massachusetts whose offerings overflow its borders.

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!

When three veteran actors from Shakespeare & Company set out to play 'Heroes,' there's no lack of excitement on stage, and even a little warfare.

At first impression the show seems gratuitously violent, but apparently revenge killings were a way of life during Shakespeare's time. Despite the blood and gore, TITUS ANDRONICUS became Shakespeare's most popular play. It is not recommended for the squeamish as buckets of stage blood is thrown about the stage along with chopped off body parts.

Shakespeare & Company's 36th Performance Season just keeps getting bigger and better. Artistic Director Tony Simotes has announced additional programming filled with dance, music, zany antics and more with four new additions to the already scheduled line-up.

Following a record-breaking 35th Season, Shakespeare & Company Artistic Director Tony Simotes is pleased to announce the 2013 summer lineup of plays that will take place in the Tina Packer Playhouse and the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, including a number of special events that will underscore those productions. The highlights of the 2013 Summer Season include two full productions of Shakespeare: Love's Labour's Lost and Richard II, both of which will be performed for the first time on the Tina Packer Playhouse stage, as well as the previously announced Mother Courage and Her Children, directed by Simotes and starring Academy Award winner Olympia Dukakis, Apollo Dukakis, and OBIE Award winner John Douglas Thompson. Tickets will go on sale on February 14, 2013, and can be purchased online at www.shakespeare.org or by calling 413-637-3353.