Laura Rook News

CYRANO DE BERGERAC at American Players Theatre's newly renovated Hill Theatre is a timeless romance filled with wit and heart-stopping action.

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at American Players Theatre's newly renovated Hill Theatre brings a modern spin on this Shakespearean classic, which first played on the American Players Theatre stage thirty seven years ago.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater presents Shakespeare's playful romantic comedy Love's Labor's Lost, staged by acclaimed director Marti Maraden as part of the Theater's 30th Anniversary Season. Four gentlemen foreswear love and worldly pleasures for scholarly pursuits, only to be put to the test by the arrival of four beautiful ladies from the French Court-and the ensuing hysterical misadventures.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) announces the cast and creative team for Shakespeare's playful romantic comedy Love's Labor's Lost, staged by acclaimed director Marti Maraden as part of the Theater's 30th Anniversary Season.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) announces the cast and creative team for Shakespeare's playful romantic comedy Love's Labor's Lost, staged by acclaimed director Marti Maraden as part of the Theater's 30th Anniversary Season.

  Theater should have an effect on the audience, and this show does exactly that. We are told in the beginning by Charlie (Nate Burger) that tomorrow is Mary's Wedding, tonight is a dream.

American Players Theater's William Brown Brings King Lear into the contemporary world, but does that make this Shakespearean Tragedy Relevant? In a word, Yes! The good King has his retirement all mapped out when lo and behold, his family all of people just refuse to cooperate.

When the audience arrives at American Players (APT) Up the Hill Theatre for the opening of William Shakespeare's King Lear, they might believe a presidential press conference will be staged. Green lawn expands into the audience, actors place contemporary white chairs in a distinct pattern and a glass podium greets the audience--and plenty of paparazzi appear to capture the King, the Duke of Gloucester and Duchess of Kent, and Lear's three daughters entering the lawn party. At night under the stars, the royal staging opens when the King appears announcing his 'retirement,' dividing his kingdom to his three progeny. Two dutiful daughters ascend to the podium pronouncing their love, while Cordelia speaks from the back row of chairs, the front of the Up The Hill Theatre. Goneril, Regan and Cordelia were 'dressed to kill', so to speak in sophisticated, fashion worthy coats and the appropriate fascinators, for English royalty, as were the men.This beginning places the audience firmly in a King Lear crafted for the current day, up to the very minute audiences.

Quite refreshing and revitalizing as a summer breeze, American Players Theater (APT) opened their 2016 Up the Hill season in Spring Green with a wild version of William Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors. Directed by the well-known David Frank, this condensed Comedy revisits a slight nod to Lewis Carroll's 'The Adventures of Alice in Wonderland.' The production plays broadly by quoting  Shakespeare's verse with a tongue in cheek delivery also heightened by Victorian costumes designed by Fabio Tablini.  The imaginative designer envisioned two Dromios which might resemble Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, clothed in wide striped pants, vivid colored jackets and huge straw hats. The story set amid an Ephesus where square marble columns and a great gate placed on the left Up The Hill stage fashioned by Scenic Designer Nayna Ramey, gives Ephesus a rather dream like quality. 

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) presents Shakespeare's intimate tragedy of heartbreak and revenge, OTHELLO. Staged by UK award-winning director Jonathan Munby, the production features James Vincent Meredith in the title role as the Moor. Munby imagines Shakespeare's tale in the landscape of a modern-day military base amid the searing themes of revenge, prejudice and passion. Featured in the yearlong Shakespeare 400 Chicago celebration, OTHELLO is presented in CST's Courtyard Theater, tonight, February 18, through April 10, 2016.

American Players Theatre (APT) announces its 37th Summer Festival Season, June 3 - October 16, 2016, a diverse lineup of eight classical and contemporary plays in repertory that includes the return and work of two visiting Chicago directors: Derrick Sanders, founding Artistic Director of Congo Square Theatre Company directing The African Company Presents Richard III by Carlyle Brown in APT's intimate 200-seat Touchstone Theatre; and Jeff Award winner William Brown taking on William Shakespeare's King Lear in APT's flagship 1140-seat outdoor amphitheater on the Hill.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) announces the full cast and creative team for Shakespeare's intimate tragedy of heartbreak and revenge, OTHELLO.

First published more than 200 years ago, Jane Austen's famous novel Pride and Prejudice comes to American Players Theatre (APT) and revisits significant gender issues audiences might assume have been resolved. Former Milwaukee Reperatory Theater Artistic Director Joseph Hanreddy and acclaimed J.R. Sullivan adapted one of the world's most popular novels into a compelling, senstive stage play that breathes life into Austen's romantic couples who search for their futures on Spring Green's Up the Hill stage this summer.

American Players Theatre (APT) will launch its 36th Season tonight, June 6, 2015 with a preview performance of William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. The performance begins at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are still available.

American Players Theatre (APT) will launch its 36th Season June 6, 2015 with a preview performance of William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor.

'Without the theatre, nothing is possible.' Words penned by one of the greatest playwrights in theatrical history. And for Anton Chekov's play The Seagull, a show filled with characters deigning to exist as the people they've become, that pinnacle phrase means the world.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) announced today casting for William Shakespeare's epic Henry V, directed by celebrated British director Christopher Luscombe in his Chicago debut. In a rousing finale to the 2014 season, the play that inaugurated Chicago Shakespeare Theater in 1986 on the rooftop of Lincoln Park's Red Lion Pub comes to the Courtyard Theater for the first time. Shakespeare's powerful history play explores the consequences of war and the capacity of language to inspire and transform. Leading the troops as the charismatic, young monarch is Harry Judge in the titular role. Henry V will be performed in CST's Courtyard Theater April 29 through June 15, 2014.

Love and sex: This dynamic pair of human needs has dominated society's conscious since Eve offered Adam the apple and together they discovered their nakedness. The two subjects frequently intermingle on stage at Spring Green's American Players Theatre for the company's final selection in their 2013 season when APT opened the decadent Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Writers Theatre Executive Director Kathryn M. Lipuma and Artistic Director Michael Halberstam announce a two-week extension of the critically-acclaimed and wildly popular production of The Liar, adapted by David Ives from the classic by Corneille. The production now runs through runs August 11, 2013 atWriters Theatre, 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe, IL. David Greig's Yellow Moon, which began its run at Writers' on April 16, 2013, at 664 Vernon Ave, will close on July 14, 2013.

Writers' Theatre will present THE LIAR, tonight, May 21 - July 28, 2013 at 325 Tudor Court, Glencoe, Ill. The Liar by David Ives, adapted from the comedy by Pierre Corneille, will be directed by William Brown.