Verona News

Free For All, one of the capital's cherished annual traditions, will return this summer to Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC), offering two weeks of free performances of the Company's 2016 production of Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. Directed by STC Associate Artistic Director Alan Paul, whose hit production of Camelot has extended through July 8 due to popular demand, the production will run at Sidney Harman Hall (610 F St NW) from August 21-September 2, providing more than 12,000 people the chance to see the play free of charge.

New York: The record-breaking hit Off-Broadway play, AFTERGLOW, written and directed by S. Asher Gelman, celebrates its one-year anniversary tonight, making it one of the longest running Off-Broadway plays this season.

For three Monday evenings in July, ballet fans nationwide can enjoy the Bolshoi Ballet's awe-inspiring performances from the comfort of their local cinemas. The 'Bolshoi Ballet Summer Series' brings three classic events back to the big screen for one-evening-only presentations. The series includes Giselle on July 9, featuring ballet superstars Svetlana Zakharova and Sergei Polunin, Alexei Ratmansky's poetic staging of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet on July 16, and classical ballet's most beloved story, born at the Bolshoi Theatre, Swan Lake on July 23. All performances were captured live from the Bolshoi Theatre stage in Moscow, Russia.

Dirty Dancing - The Classic Story On Stage continues to dazzle with a new production and North American tour. After three successful years on tour boasting numerous sold out engagements, this new adaptation of the worldwide smash-hit film, currently celebrating its 30th Anniversary, will make a stop in the Lehigh Valley at The State Theatre on June 21 and June 22, 2018.

Dog Days Theatre begins its second season with Joe Orton's farce What the Butler Saw, playing July 12 through 29 in the Cook Theatre at FSU Center for Performing Arts in Sarasota. Single tickets are $30, or a season ticket package-paired with Dog Days Theatre's August production of The Turn of the Screw-is available for $55. What the Butler Saw is made possible with support from The Observer, Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax Services, The Exchange, and WUSF Public Media, and is presented by FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training.

On the stage of the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre, Evgeny Pisarev has built a whole world out of lush satin bed-sheets, elegant lace gowns, the flash of steel blades, and hapless declarations of romance. The world of Shakespeare in Love, which made its Russian debut this May, is decadent and fantastical; it flaps around in the mercy of whim but is anchored in place by drama.

Following critical acclaim, and a sold-out run at the Young Vic, producers Sonia Friedman Productions, Tom Kirdahy and Hunter Arnold are delighted to announce the full cast for the West End transfer of Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson's The Jungle, a National Theatre and Young Vic co-production with Good Chance Theatre,directed by Stephen Daldry and Justin Martin. The production is set in Europe's largest unofficial refugee camp, the Calais Jungle, which in 2015, became a temporary home for more than 10,000 people.  Previewing from 16 June, with World Refugee Day on 20 June, The Jungle will have an Opening Night on 5 July at the Playhouse Theatre, with rehearsal photography released today. Check out the cast in action below!

The 72nd Annual Tony Awards are this Sunday June 10th at 8/9c hosted by Josh Groban and Sara Bareilles. It's the biggest award show of the Broadway season and it closes out a long awards season for Broadway and Off-Broadway musicals and plays. We can't help but wonder what chances this year's Best Musical and Best Play nominees have of taking home the ultimate prize...

The Globe is happy to announce that the Globe for All Tour will continue to bring shows to the community in 2018, with support provided by Theatre Forward's Advancing Strong Theatre grant program. Following the Globe engagement of Karen Zacarias's hilarious comedy directed by Edward Torres, Native Gardens will travel June 28 through July 1 to four of our community partner venues for free performances in South Bay, Lemon Grove, Otay Mesa, and Oceanside. Developed in the 2017 Powers New Voices Festival, it runs through June 24 in the Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center, and then hits the road!

Access Theater presents a new, reimagined production of Beaumont & Fletcher's The Maid's Tragedy. Set in present day Hollywood, this production is presented by Pocket Universe, the company behind last summer's Julius Caesar set in an all girls' high-school. The Off-Broadway production will run from June 13 to June 30, 2018 with opening night set for Friday, June 15.

Barefoot Shakespeare Company ?and Occupy Verona ?are teaming up for "She Doth Persist," a season celebrating feminism and activism. First up is All One Forest, a new play that explores what happens when famous characters from Shakespeare's plays meet each other outside of their stories. All performances will be held at Summit Rock in Central Park and admission is free.

OPERALIA, the international Opera competition founded by Placido Domingo in 1993, will be presented in Portugal for the very first time this summer. The competition will take place at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos, which is located in the historical center of Lisbon's Chiado District since its inauguration in 1793. A theatre of extraordinary architectural value and beauty, São Carlos has enjoyed a long prestigious history interrupted only by the Portuguese Civil War of the 19th Century and the repairs it sustained in the 1930s. It has welcomed numerous notable international artists, including Maria Callas, Alfredo Kraus, Monserrat Caballe and Placido Domingo, who made his debut in Lisbon in the title role of Verdi's Otello in 1989. The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos now welcomes the 26th Edition of the prestigious OPERALIA competition from August 27th to September 2nd, 2018. The competition will feature 40 competitors from 24 different countries, including two Portuguese singers.

Following in the footsteps of their booze-fuelled trip to Venice with The Merchant of Venice earlier this year, the critically lauded (and occasionally lambasted) Magnificent Bastard Productions hot foot it to Verona as they make their return to the Leicester Square Theatre (20th June - 1st September). From sozzled star-crossed lovers to a tipsy Tybalt, Shit-faced Shakespeare give Romeo and Juliet their signature shit-faced twist as the cast attempt to navigate the bard's fated love story with one drunk performer.

COWBOY VERSUS SAMURAI by Michael Golamco is a laugh-out-loud, romantic comedy exploring the sexual dynamics that surface around race when an attractive Korean American woman moves to town. Travis Park is a high school English teacher and the only Korean American man living in a dusty cowboy town known as Breakneck, Wyoming. When a gorgeous, whip-smart Asian American woman moves into town, he immediately falls for her; the only problem is that she only dates white men. In this savagely funny and often-moving re-telling of Edmond Rostand's Cyrano De Bergerac, one man must choose allegiance between his cowboy friend (a dim, handsome, Caucasian P.E. teacher named Del) and his Asian Brother-with-a-Capital-B (crazed, militant Asian of Unknown Origin, Chester).

Make plans today for William Shakespeare's ROMEO & JULIET, Bainbridge Performing Arts' 6th Annual Summertime Shakespeare performance, appearing July 13 - 29 at The Bloedel Reserve. One of the Bard's most popular romantic tragedies, ROMEO & JULIET centers on a long feud between the Montague and Capulet families that disrupts the city of Verona and causes tragic results for Romeo and Juliet. Revenge, love, and a secret marriage force the young star-crossed lovers to grow up quickly - and fate causes them to take their own lives in despair.

The 2018 theater season opens at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater with This Is Our Youth, by Academy Award winner Kenneth Lonergan, directed by Katherine M. Carter and starring Michael Goldsmith, John Evans Reese and Ruby Wolf. Designers for This Is Our Youth are Edward Morris (Scenic Design), Caitlin Cisek (Costume Design), Conor Mulligan (Lighting Design), and Beth Lake (Sound Design). Performances are at 8:00 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays, June 1-22. Two preview performances, May 30 and 31, begin at 7:30 p.m.

The 2018 theater season opens at Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater with This Is Our Youth, by Academy Award winner Kenneth Lonergan, directed by Katherine M. Carter and starring Michael Goldsmith, John Evans Reese and Ruby Wolf. Designers for This Is Our Youth are Edward Morris (Scenic Design), Caitlin Cisek (Costume Design), Conor Mulligan (Lighting Design), and Beth Lake (Sound Design). Performances are at 8:00 p.m., Tuesdays through Saturdays, June 1-22. Two preview performances, May 30 and 31, begin at 7:30 p.m.

Charles Dickens' beloved orphan makes his Goodspeed debut in the hope-filled musical set in the dark shadows of Victorian London. Bounced from workhouse to forced labor, Oliver Twist escapes to the streets where he meets Fagin, the Artful Dodger and a band of child pickpockets. Will he find love, home and happiness before it's too late?

The world-renowned soprano, who is Honorary President of the Academy, will be giving masterclasses to singers enrolled on the annual Summer School programme.

This summer spend a bewitching night with A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM at the GRIFFITH PARK FREE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL. Independent Shakespeare Co. celebrates the 15thanniversary season of free Shakespeare in Los Angeles City Parks. The Old Zoo will be transformed into an enchanted forest with an all-new production that envelops the audience with the action of the play. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM, directed by Independent Shakespeare Co.'s Artistic Director, Melissa Chalsma,will begin previews at THE GRIFFITH PARK FREE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL on Saturday, June 30 at 7pm and will open on Saturday, July 7 at 7:00pm and perform through Sunday, September 2 at the Old Zoo in Griffith Park.  All ISC Summer Shakespeare productions are FREE to the public!  A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM is the first of two productions being presented at this year's GRIFFITH PARK FREE SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL. TITUS ANDRONICUS will open July 28 and then the plays will run in repertory through September 2.