Shakespeare & Company News

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) will celebrate Shakespeare's 451st birthday with a special Birthday Bash musical concert on Sunday 26 April. The day before, Saturday 25 April, as part of Stratford-upon-Avon's annual Shakespeare Birthday Celebrations, the RSC will also offer a range of free activities for the family.

In a production commissioned by the Finborough Theatre, Our American Cousin is the play that President Abraham Lincoln was watching when he was assassinated at Ford's Theatre, Washington DC, on 14 April 1865 - exactly 150 years ago. The first London production in more than a century opens at the Finborough Theatre for a limited run of nine Sunday and Monday evening and Tuesday matinee performances from Sunday, 29 March 2015 (Press Night: Monday, 30 March 2015 at 7.30pm).

As part of its Southern Exposure Series, which features new and classic literature by Southern writers with Southern inspiration, Tennessee Shakespeare Company this spring returns to its popular Tuesday Literary Salons with the works of two form-breaking southern writers read in fun, intimate settings.

The 'educational outreach' version of HAMLET created by Gamut has real merit and a time limit anyone can manage.

Contra Costa Civic Theatre (CCCT) continues its 55th season with one of the most popular American comedies, The Foreigner, directed by Ken Sonkin in his CCCT debut, from April 3-26, 2015. Performances will be Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm at the theatre.

New Repertory Theatre announces STRONGER THAN THE WIND written and performed by Alice Manning, March 22-April 5, 2015 in the Black Box Theater at the Arsenal Center for the Arts, 321 Arsenal Street, Watertown, MA. The press opening will be Monday, March 23 at 7:30pm.

Take 6 writers and give them 12 hours to write a ten minute play. Include some random ingredients, some curveballs, and one line chosen by the public. The next day, grab a director and? tons of actors, rehearse those shows and perform them that night at 7:30. That's Pop-Up Plays, popping up for the second year at Town Hall Theater tonight, March 7th at 7:30pm. The whole event takes place in 24 hours, which makes it the freshest theater experience around.

Orange County, Calif.—March 6, 2015—The world's most brilliant playwright—William Shakespeare—is reimagined in unexpected ways when Pacific Symphony partners with Chapman University to present “Shakespeare Reimagined,” a festival that explores how The Bard's plays have inspired not only other playwrights and directors, but also composers, choreographers and filmmakers. The festival, which runs through April 19, began last month with “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark” at Chapman University, and continues on March 13 with a semi-staged version of Mendelssohn's “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” performed by The Chapman Orchestra, Women's Choir and Department of Theatre students. The festival culminates April 16-19 with four Pacific Symphony concerts featuring Prokofiev's “Romeo and Juliet.” The ballet is presented with actors and dancers who help reinstate the composer's original happy ending, which was banned by Joseph Stalin. For a complete listing of events, which include classical concerts, discussions, film screenings, dance, lectures, theater, master classes and a symposium on interpreting Shakespeare, please see the calendar below, or visit http://www.chapman.edu/events/shakespeare-reimagined/event-calendar.aspx.

Pioneer Theatre Company presents the comedy I Hate Hamlet by PAUL RUDNICK, March 20 - April 4, 2015. Visiting guest artist ART MANKE directs the production.

Rick Dildine is returning to St. Louis to serve as Artistic & Executive Director of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis, a company he led from 2009-2014. Dildine became Executive Director & President of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA, in September 2014.

The Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra announces the 2nd annual BPYO Young Composers Initiative, set for Saturday, March 21st from 2:30pm-6:30pm at the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, 41 Berkeley Street, Boston. Free and open to the public.

Circo de Nada presents a very limited engagement of Henry Four running April 3 and 4, 2015 at Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), located at 421 Fifth Avenue between 7th and 8th Streets in Park Slope. Henry Four is adapted by Amy Driesler and Nick Trotter from William Shakespeare's Henry IV Parts One and Two. All performances will be at 8PM. BAX is easily accessible via the F or G trains to Fourth Avenue or the R train to 9th Street. For more information visit: http://nicktrotter.com/henry-four/

It's important to be Earnest in this boys meet girls comedy of manners.

Academy Award winner Helen Mirren will return to Broadway this spring as Elizabeth II in Peter Morgan's The Audience, directed by two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Daldry. Opening Night is tonight, March 8, 2015; the limited engagement runs through June 28, 2015 at Broadway's Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Scroll down to learn more about the company!

Dust off your eight-track stereo and join Ensemble Theatre Cincinnati for the hippest after-hours joint in town with the regional premiere of Detroit '67! Playwright Dominique Morisseau introduces audiences to a a dynamic brother and sister as they host rockin' parties and fight to keep their home (and their future) out of the ashes during the 1967 Detroit riots. Records, raids, and riveting drama take the stage for this sizzling production, playing March 17-April 5, 2015. Directed by D. Lynn Meyers.

Renowned Polish actors Piotr Cyrwus and Szymon Ku?mider from Teatr Polski in Warsaw bring The Emigrants, a dark comedy by S?awomir Mro?ek, to the Odyssey Theatre for three performances on March 25, 26 and 27, presented by the Consulate General of the Republic of Poland in Los Angeles in association with Modjeska Art and Culture Club and Odyssey Theatre Ensemble.

Doctor X is on a mission to make happy couples of The City pay, murdering them while they sleep with his specially designed poison that goes straight to the heart. Meanwhile, talented surgeon Peter works around the clock to perfect an artificial replacement to his own damaged heart, so it'll never be broken again. Caught in the middle are The Crimefighters-nurses by day, superheroes by night-who must stop Doctor X before he kills love forever.

Aurora Theatre Company continues its 23rd season with TALLEY'S FOLLY. In a season dedicated to his memory, the company pays homage to one of the most prolific and revered American playwrights of the 20th century, Lanford Wilson, with 'The Talley Trilogy,' of which TALLEY'S FOLLEY is the first entry in the series of three interrelated plays.

Lanford Wilson's 'Talley Trilogy' continues on the Aurora Theatre Company main stage with FIFTH OF JULY. Aurora Artistic Director Tom Ross (A Bright New Boise, This Is How It Goes, Edward Albee's A Delicate Balance, The Shape of Things) helms FIFTH OF JULY, featuring Craig Marker (The Shape of Things, The Persians), Elizabeth Benedict, John Girot, Jennifer Le Blanc, Oceana Ortiz, Harold Pierce, Josh Schell, and Nanci Zoppi. FIFTH OF JULY plays April 17 through May 17 at the Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. For tickets ($32-60) and information the public can call (510) 843-4822 or visit auroratheatre.org.

Casting for Melissa's Choice, a new play by award-winning playwright Steven Somkin, is now complete. The production opens May 5 for a limited run at Theatre Row's Lion Theatre, 410 West 42nd St.