Shakespeare Santa Cruz summer season opens
July 20
By Scott Rappaport
Tickets are still available for the 24th summer season of Shakespeare
Santa Cruz (SSC), running July 20 to August 28 at the UCSC
Mainstage Theater and Festival Glen.
Michael Milligan as Feste in Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night
Photo: Steve DiBartolomeo
|
Featured in the June 13 issue of Newsweek as one of
five respected theater companies in the nation with promising
seasons this summer, SSC will present another sterling combination
of festive comedy, transformative drama, and wicked satire.
This year's plays include Shakespeare's quintessential comedy
Twelfth Night and poetic drama The Winter's Tale,
plus W. S. Gilbert's brilliant satire Engaged. The fringe
production is The Antipodes, written by Richard Brome
in 1636.
Twelfth Night contains some of Shakespeare's best-loved
characters, including valiant Viola, lovesick Duke Orsino, Feste
the wise fool, the priggish Malvolio, and Sir Toby Belch. It
will be directed by P. J. Paparelli--artistic director at Perseverance
Theatre in Juneau, Alaska, and former associate director of
the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington D.C. Lauded by the Washington
Post as “one of the most exciting talents working in
Washington today,” Paparelli will be making his SSC directorial
debut.
The Winter's Tale includes some of Shakespeare's most
beautiful imagery in a story involving a jealous king, a mistaken
daughter, comic misadventure, loss, love, and reconciliation.
Favorite SSC director Tim Ocel (Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer
Night's Dream, Two Gentleman of Verona, As You Like It)
directs this production.
Engaged by W. S. Gilbert features an extraordinary gallery
of compelling characters caught between the competing attractions
of sex and money in a hilarious satire of rampant British materialism
and hypocrisy in the 1870s. It will be directed by SSC Artistic
Director Paul Whitworth (Princess and the Pea, Gretel &
Hansel, Cinderella, and Arms and the Man).
This summer, for the first time, reserved seating is now available
in the outdoor Festival Glen. Managing director Marcus Cato
also noted other improvements SSC hopes to implement in the
next few years--including the construction of a “sunshade”
to make matinee performances in the glen more comfortable for
the entire audience.
SSC also will offer a variety of extra events and activities
to enhance audience appreciation of the 2005 season. These include
a free lecture series at the Nickelodeon Theater beginning on
July 15; free Saturday backstage tours beginning on August 6;
and pre- and post-play discussions with the directors, designers,
and actors.
For more festival and ticket information, visit the SSC
web site or call the UCSC Ticket Office at (831) 459-2159.
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