Santa Cruz Shakespeare Announces 2018 Season

Santa Cruz Shakespeare is thrilled to announce its 2018 summer season, with repertory performances beginning July 10 and running through September 2 at the Audrey Stanley Grove in DeLaveaga Park. Celebrating its fifth season as an independent nonprofit, SCS will kick off summer performances with Shakespeare's hilarious feast of language Love's Labour's Lost, directed by Laura Gordon (Much Ado About Nothing, 2015), beginning performances July 10. Romeo and Juliet,

Shakespeare's classic tragedy of star-crossed lovers, starts July 24 and is directed by Paul Mullins (The 39 Steps, 2017, Hamlet, 2016). The final mainstage production of the season begins August 7 with David Ives's psycho-sexual comedic thriller Venus in Fur. All productions run in repertory after opening. Plus, Santa Cruz Shakespeare continues the tradition of showcasing the season's intern acting company with its celebratory Fringe production. Tickets go on sale May 15, 2018 with a Santa Cruz Shakespeare Member pre-sale starting May 1, and can be purchased online at santacruzshakespeare.org.

Artistic Director Mike Ryan frames the season by saying, "To quote Venus in Fur: 'Hail, Aphrodite!' Our 2018 lineup is about the consequences of trying to control love. The results of this control play out tragically, hilariously, and even sexually, but always with unexpected results. It is a season in which women refuse to be defined by the men around them or to play by their rules."

SCS also inaugurates its first week of student-only matinees in early September, open to area high-school students. "The ultimate goal for this program is to make sure every high school student in Santa Cruz County will have seen a live, professional production of Shakespeare by the time they graduate," says Ryan. "We couldn't be more thrilled to share one of Shakespeare's classics with the next generation of theatergoers."

Santa Cruz Shakespeare will once again offer a "Free Youth Ticket" to one of its productions, a program initiated in 2015 to encourage the introduction of Shakespeare to the next generation. This year, those 18 and under accompanied by a paying adult will receive a free groundling ticket to Love's Labour's Lost.