Pennsylvania Shakespeare Fest Announces 20th Season with New Programming

A bold vision created the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival 20 years ago; an equally bold vision transforms the summer 2011 season. Major new programming includes:
Two plays in rep on the Main Stage
Three plays by Shakespeare
Shakespeare Untamed/The Actors Take Charge
PSF's 24th Shakespeare Play

Producing Artistic Director Patrick Mulcahy Announces the Season

"This season offers a glimpse of the future," says Patrick Mulcahy, producing artistic director. "As we approached the 20th anniversary milestone, we challenged ourselves to envision what the Festival would become in the next 20 years: a world-class festival creating world-class productions."

Three plays by Shakespeare - Hamlet, The Comedy of Errors, and The Two Noble Kinsmen - will be produced, plus Pride and Prejudice, a romantic musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, as well as Sleeping Beauty and Shakespeare for Kids.

For the first time ever, two plays will be performed in repertory with the same cast. Hamlet, which Mulcahy will direct, and Pride and Prejudice, will alternate nightly on the Main Stage, July 19 - August 7. PSF's Erin Hurley, who has directed a dozen productions for the Festival, will make her Main Stage directing debut with Pride and Prejudice.

"Doing two plays in rep accomplishes several aims," Mulcahy says. "Audiences love seeing the same actors in multiple productions, actors and designers love the challenge, and it creates appeal for our patrons who travel from some distance."

Also for the first time ever, actors will rehearse a play, The Two Noble Kinsmen, the way Shakespeare's company would have. "We're calling it ‘Shakespeare Untamed: The Actors Take Charge,'" Mulcahy says. "The actors will arrive with their lines learned, rehearse for a few days, wear what they can find - and open in less than a week." (Most productions at PSF rehearse for three-plus weeks.) This will be the first time PSF will produce The Two Noble Kinsmen, the Festival's 24th Shakespeare play.

"No director, no designers." Mulcahy says. "Just great actors, a great play - and pure adrenaline and spontaneity." The Two Noble Kinsmen will run in the Schubert Theatre for only 15 performances, July 27 - August 7.

The season will open on the Main Stage with a classic musical by Rodgers and Hammerstein, which will be announced in February once a national touring production is out of the region. PSF associate artistic director, Dennis Razze, will direct. The musical will run June 15 - July 3.

Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors will run in the Schubert Theater June 22 - July 17. "Traditionally, our seasons have opened in the Schubert - but by opening the musical on the Main Stage first, we make room for the rep in the second half of the season," Mulcahy says.

Theatre for families with younger children will include Sleeping Beauty, June 3 - August 6, and Shakespeare for Kids, July 27 - August 6.

Subscription renewals are currently in progress; new subscriptions will be available after January 1.

"Our big plans for this season are intended both to celebrate the Festival's coming of age in the 20th season," says Mulcahy, "and to put our stake in the ground for the future. The vision for the next twenty years is even more exciting."

[A Romantic Musical] To Be Announced
By Rodgers and Hammerstein
June 15 - July 3 • Main Stage

The Comedy of Errors
By William Shakespeare
June 22 - July 17 • Schubert Theatre

Pride and Prejudice
By Jane Austen, adapted by Jon Jory
July 19 - August 7 • Main Stage

Hamlet
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Patrick Mulcahy
July 20 - August 7 • Main Stage

The Two Noble Kinsmen
By William Shakespeare
July 27 - August 7 • Schubert Theatre

Sleeping Beauty
By Michele L. Vacca
June 3 - August 6 • Schubert Theatre

Shakespeare for Kids
By Erin Hurley
June 3 - August 6 • Main Stage

 

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