Old Globe's 2009 Summer Festival Continues With CORIOLANUS 6/20

The Tony Award®-winning Old Globe its 2009 Summer Shakespeare Festival with Shakespeare's Coriolanus. The production debuts tonight in the Globe's outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.

Old Globe Resident-Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak, who recently helmed the Globe's acclaimed 2008 productions of All's Well That Ends Well and The Women, directs Coriolanus.

The Festival creative team includes: Festival Artistic Director Darko Tresnjak, director: Coriolanus and Cyrano de Bergerac; Paul Mullins, director: Twelfth Night; Globe Associate Artist Ralph Funicello, Set Designer; Linda Cho, Costume Designer for Twelfth Night; Anna R. Oliver, Costume Designer for R Coriolanus and Cyrano de Bergerac; York Kennedy, Lighting Designer; Chris Walker, Sound Designer; Mary K Klinger, Stage Manager, and Moira Gleason, Jen Wheeler and Erin Albrecht, Assistant Stage Managers.

Cyrano de Bergerac opened the Festival, Twelfth Night begans previews on June 17 with a press opening on July 1; and Coriolanus begins previews tonight June 20, with a press opening on July 5.

There are several opportunities throughout the summer to see three the Shakespeare productions on three consecutive nights, including (weekends in bold): July 7-9; July 8-10; July 9-11; July 10-12; July 16-18; July 21- 23; July 22-24; Aug 4-6; Aug 5-7; Aug 7-9; Aug 12-14; Aug 14-16; Aug 19-21; Aug 20-22; Aug 27-29; Aug 28-30; Sept 4-6; Sept 11-13; Sept 15-17; Sept 16-18; Sept 17-19; Sept 22-24; Sept 25-27.

Individual tickets are available by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE, online at www.TheOldGlobe.org, or by visiting the Globe Box Office at 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

The Globe is thrilled to continue bringing back the time-honored tradition of repertory begun by Founding Director Craig Noel. Shakespeare at the Globe dates back to the institution's artistic roots, when, in its very first year of existence, the Theatre presented 50-minute versions of Shakespeare's plays, performed in repertory. From 1949 to 1984, the Bard's work became an even more integral part of the Globe's programming, with the creation of the annual San Diego National Shakespeare Festival, an ambitious, summer-long event in which at least three Shakespeare works were presented in repertory. Revived in 2004, the Globe Summer Shakespeare Festival has become one of the most celebrated classical festivals in the country.
The Festival has garnered over two dozen awards during the last several years, including an Outstanding Ensemble Award for Measure for Measure and Outstanding Production Awards for Pericles and The Winter's Tale from the San Diego Critics Circle.

Shakespeare's final tragedy is also considered one of his greatest. This powerful political drama tells the story of the great Roman general whose arrogance leads to his own downfall. One of Shakespeare's most provocative plays, Coriolanus is a mesmerizing tale that unfolds as both personal tragedy and political thriller. From exalted war hero - to heavy handed politician to finally, exile - Coriolanus is manipulated by his power hungry mother Volumnia (one of Shakespeare's great female roles) and his unwillingness to compromise his principles as his world spirals out of control in his crusade for vengeance.

The three Shakespeare productions will be part of a five-play summer season, which also includes The First Wives Club - A New Musical, a thrilling, Broadway-bound production, featuring a book by Tony winner Rupert Holmes and a score by Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Eddie Holland, directed by Francesca Zambello (July 15 - August 25) the Old Globe Theatre, and Charles Ludlam's hilarious Obie Award-winning play, The Mystery of Irma Vep, directed by Henry Wishcamper (July 31 - September 6) in the Globe's Arena Stage at the San Diego Museum of Art's Copley Auditorium.

Globe Resident Artistic Director and Artistic Director of the Globe's 2004-2008 Shakespeare Festivals, Darko Tresnjak's directorial credits at the Globe include: The Pleasure of His Company, All's Well That Ends Well, Bell, Book and Candle, Hamlet, Pericles, The Two Noble Kinsmen, Antony and Cleopatra, The Winter's Tale, The Comedy of Errors, A Midsummer Night's Dream and Titus Andronicus. Other credits include The Merchant of Venice at the Royal Shakespeare Company and Theatre for a New Audience, All's Well That Ends Well, Antony and Cleopatra at Theatre for a New Audience; The Two Noble Kinsmen at The Public Theatre; Princess Turandot and Hotel Universe at Blue Light Theater Company; More Lies About Jerzy at the Vineyard Theater Company; The Skin of Our Teeth, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, The Winter's Tale, Under Milk Wood, Moving Picture, The Blue Demon, Princess Turandot and The Love of Three Oranges at Williamstown Theatre Festival; Heartbreak House, What the Butler Saw, Amphitryon and The Blue Demon at the Huntington Theatre; Hay Fever and Princess Turandot at Westport Country Playhouse; The Two Noble Kinsmen at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at Long Wharf Theater; A Little Night Music, Amour at Goodspeed Opera House; and La Dispute at UCSD.

His opera credits include the American premiere of Victor Ullmann's Der Zerbrochene Krug and Alexander Zemlinsky's Der Zwerg at Los Angeles Opera; Die Zauberflöte at Opera Theater of St. Louis; Orfeo ed Euridice, Il Trovatore and Turandot at Virginia Opera; Turandot at Opera Carolina; IL Barbieri di Siviglia Florida Grand Opera; Die Zauberflöte, Florentine Opera Company; La Traviata, Der Fliegende Hollander, Die Fledermaus, and the American premiere of May Night at Sarasota Opera.

He is the recipient of the Alan Schneider Award for Directing Excellence, TCG National Theater Artist Residency Award, Boris Sagal Directing Fellowship, NEA New Forms Grant, two Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowships, two San Diego Critics Circle Awards for his direction of Pericles and The Winter's Tale, and two Patté Awards for his direction of The Winter's Tale and Titus Andronicus. He has performed with numerous Philadelphia dance and theater companies and toured across the United States and Japan with the UNIMA Award-winning Mum Puppettheatre. He was educated at Swarthmore College and Columbia University. Upcoming projects include Walter Braunfels' The Birds at the Los Angeles Opera, conducted by James Conlon.

Photo by Craig Schwartz