Bite-sized Shakespeare: An abridged version of the iconic Shakespeare comedy, Midsummer 90 drops the Night’s Dream and retains all the humor and wonder of the original script without sacrificing its spellbinding storytelling. By packing the fairies, magic, and fantastical animals into a performance that clocks in under two hours, the play is perfect for children […]
Bite-sized Shakespeare: An abridged version of the iconic Shakespeare comedy, Midsummer 90 drops the Night’s Dream and retains all the humor and wonder of the original script without sacrificing its spellbinding storytelling. By packing the fairies, magic, and fantastical animals into a performance that clocks in under two hours, the play is perfect for children […]
Building Rome: Political intrigue and deception run deep in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, part of American Shakespeare Center’s Roman trio. The characters struggle with their own humanity and morality, as they try to justify power grabs and shady deals. Initially performed in 1599, more than 1,500 years after Caesar died, the historical epic may have been […]
Ethan McSweeny is fond of automotive idioms. “I’m firing on all cylinders,” he says when asked about his work with the American Shakespeare Center, where he has been the artistic director for close to a year. It’s like “trying to tinker on the engine of your car while you’re driving—this thing never gets up on […]
“Comfort thyself, sweet friend; it is not strange / That women will be false and wavering.”—Franklin, Arden of Faversham (Act 1, scene 1) Maybe the scheduling was merely coincidental, but witnessing the debut performance of the early modern true-crime drama Arden of Faversham on International Women’s Day felt particularly wrong—and perhaps more comical because of […]
To a lay audience member who hasn’t been involved in a theater production since fifth grade, directors seem as essential to any play’s success as a script. They’re the boss of the show. If the director goes into a coma at the start of the first rehearsal or has a crisis and runs off with […]
Though Jane Austen originally wrote Emma as a novel, the story feels like it was made for the stage. This famously witty comedy of manners focuses on the title character and her frustrating but hilarious attempts to play matchmaker in her friends’ lives, while romance for the hard-to-love Emma herself shows up in unexpected ways. Zoe […]
Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew is a play within a play that centers on a dysfunctional courtship (defined as misogynistic by modern standards), where subordinate female behavior from leading lady Katherina outsmarts psychological torture by her male suitor, Petruchio, all in the name of comedic farce. Friday, December 29 & Sunday, December 31. $29-54, times vary. American Shakespeare […]
The publication of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol in 1853 served to revive interest in some long-expired holiday traditions, including caroling and feasts, and generated the iconic tale of personal transformation that’s been replayed in December for more than 150 years. Responsible for imprinting “Merry Christmas,” “Bah, humbug!” and Scrooge on the seasonal lexicon, Dickens […]
Everyone loves the classic holiday stories, but, let’s be honest, we’ve seen it all—Christmas past, present and future. Instead of choosing one, the creators of Every Christmas Story Ever Told (And Then Some!) perform every yuletide tale they can muster, flying through costumes and carols, while managing to mix in international holiday traditions and seasonal […]
The King of Navarre and his three friends have signed an oath to avoid the company of women for three years in Love’s Labour’s Lost. This should be easy: Who needs women when you have your studies and fasting to focus on, right? That is, until the arrival of the Princess of France and her […]