Patrick Mulcahy News

Capping a 20th anniversary season of milestones, the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival turns to the Elizabethan past with its rehearsal methods for The Two Noble Kinsmen.

For the first time in its 20 year history, The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival will offer productions in true rep, alternating two plays with the same cast in the same theatre: Hamlet and Pride and Prejudice will play in rep July 19 through August 7 on the PSF Main Stage in the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of DeSales University in Center Valley.

Steve Burns, the original host of the hit children's TV series, Blue's Clues, will appear at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival this summer in The Comedy of Errors opening June 24 at DeSales University.

Steve Burns, the original host of the hit children's TV series, Blue's Clues, will appear at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival this summer in The Comedy of Errors opening June 24 at DeSales University.

Steve Burns, the original host of the hit children's TV series, Blue's Clues, will appear at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival this summer in The Comedy of Errors opening June 24 at DeSales University.

For the first time, an actor will arrive direct from a Broadway production to appear in the same role on the PSF main stage: William Michals, who played Emile de Becque in South Pacific at Lincoln Center will perform the role in PSF's production.

The opening production of the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's 20th season, South Pacific, features several historic firsts

Even as it celebrates 20 years of producing Shakespeare and classical theatre, the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival announces a multitude of firsts

The sensational musical that won a fleet of awards when it opened in 1949 and again in its recent Broadway revival, Rodgers and Hammerstein's South Pacific will open the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's 2011 summer season.

A bold vision created the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival 20 years ago; an equally bold vision transforms the summer 2011 season.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival finished its season in the black for the fifth consecutive year, with help from individual patrons stepping in to fill gaps due to recession-related funding shifts.

With one of the most recognizable titles in the world, Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet is often obscured by its own renown. 'It's the play we all think we know,' says Patrick Mulcahy, PSF producing artistic director. 'We see a few productions that often fail to measure up to the play itself, maybe the Zefferilli film, and we think we're done with Romeo & Juliet,' he says. Yet, even after performing in three professional productions and teaching the play for 20 years, Mulcahy found himself surprised during auditions four months ago. 'There were a few moments where I heard lines I had never heard before, or got an insight from something an actor did that was new to me.

Romeo and Juliet and their zany Robot take Shakespeare's masterpiece and break-dance it down for kids in the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's Shakespeare for Kids. The production runs July 28-31 and August 3-7 at 10am at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts at DeSales University.