The Academy For Classical Acting Announces 2019 Summer Repertory Season

The Academy for Classical Acting (ACA) is excited to announce its 2019 Summer Repertory Season with three vivid new Shakespeare productions at George Washington University's Theatre XX. This summer is the first time that there will be three shows running in rep, and each of the sixteen MFA students will perform in two of the shows.

"It's a great opportunity to see the next generation of classical actors," Alec Wild, Director of the ACA explains. "It's wonderful to see these actors take their year of rigorous training and put it into performance."

Shakespeare's beloved romantic comedy As You Like It opens the rep season with a first preview on Monday, July 8. Directed by Aaron Posner, an award-winning playwright (JQA, Stupid F***ing Bird, The Chosen) and director (twenty productions at Folger Theatre), As You Like It introduces us to Shakespeare's plucky heroine Rosalind, who pulls on trousers and runs away to the forest of Arden when her cruel uncle banishes her from the city. Posner's As You Like It is a stunning, contemporary imagining of the Bard's romance, featuring original songs, music and several delightful surprises.

"As You Like It is one of my favorite plays and holds a special place in my heart. It is a play I have worked on many times, and each time I find new things to explore and new resonance. It is growing with me, or I am growing with it. Either way, it is a lovely experience, and I am very grateful to have the chance to explore it with these exciting and dynamic young performers at ACA," Posner states. "They are digging deep and, I hope, having some real fun finding the truth and extremity of these characters, nearly all of which are in LOVE of one kind or another. This play is all about the splendors and pitfalls of love- maybe, most of all, about the madness of love. This will not be fancy production. There will be neither bells nor whistles. What I hope there will be is some smart, complicated, delightful and positive views of human beings in the throes of love."

Timothy Douglas, a director who is well-known in D.C. (Arena Stage, Folger Theatre, Kennedy Center, Woolly Mammoth, Round House), leads an exciting production of Shakespeare's problem comedy Measure for Measure. "Questions about lust, power, justice, and relationships in the era of #MeToo are given equal voice in the ACA production of Measure for Measure," Douglas states. "Through a decidedly feminist gaze, this production offers clarifying insights on the ever-present tension between the letter of the law and the spirit of the law."

STC Artistic Associate Craig Baldwin will direct Shakespeare's Macbeth to round out the repertory season. Fueled by ambition and goaded by an ambiguous prophecy, nothing will stop Macbeth and Lady Macbeth from seizing the crown. Murders, hauntings, and witches abound in this supernatural and psychological thriller. "The ACA students have a rare level of training in the technical demands that a Shakespeare play makes of its actors," explains Baldwin. "Couple that with the voracious sense of adventure a student brings to the work and you have an opportunity for an extraordinary production. This Macbeth will have a ritualistic, nightmarish quality as the three witches infest the Macbeths' minds, playing every other character in the story." Baldwin is concurrently directing STC's Free For All production of Hamlet (July 10-21).

"It is thrilling that our students get to work with such seasoned directors," Wild says. "And many of our students, who are already working actors, will stay in D.C. because it's such a vibrant theatre community. You will see these actors again on the D.C. stage, so you don't want to miss them in this summer season."

GWU's Theatre XX
812 20th Street NW, Second Floor
Washington, DC 20052

Monday, July 8, 2019 through Friday, July 26, 2019
Monday - Friday at 7:30pm
Saturday at 11am, 3:30pm, and 7:30pm

$15.00 for individual tickets

3 Play Packages for $30.00 (one ticket to each show)

Free for GWU Students, Faculty, and Staff with valid University ID. Reservations required.