Shakespeare & Company’s first original full-length production written specifically for the Rose Footprint Theatre, The Mad Pirate and the Mermaid, closed on August 30th. Written and directed by Michael Burnet with original music by Bill Barclay, the show was rife with pirates, lovers, villains, square-rigged ships, identical twins, women of ill-repute, utter foolishness, gun battles, heartbreak, sword fights, three men in a boat, musical numbers, swashbuckling, redemption and a real live mermaid! While tickets to the show were free (part of our annual free Bankside Festival) and broke records in both attendance and donations at the Rose Footprint Theatre. Here’s a look back at the show’s swash-buckling mayhem.
The World Premiere of The Goatwoman of Corvis County is now in previews—it opens this Friday in the brand-new Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre.
The play features Keira Naughton as Charlotte Clarke, the so-called “Goatwoman of Corvis County” because of her uncanny ability to heal goats, who finds herself in a bit of legal trouble, but gets little help from her rough-hewn fifth husband Randy (Thomas Kee) or her troubled teenage son (David Rosenblatt). Daniel Berger-Jones completes the cast as the youthful lawyer who tries to help. It’s a dark and comical look at the breakdown of communication in a dysfunctional American family—and the secrets that, left unspoken, threaten to keep them apart.
The Goatwoman of Corvis County is written by Christine Whitley and directed by Robert Walsh, with lights by Matthew Miller, set design by Susan Zeeman Rogers, costumes by Govane Lohbauer and a sound design with original music by Bill Barclay.
Tina Packer directs All’s Well That Ends Well, with original music by Bill Barclay. The Boston Globe called it a “lively, spirited prodcution” and the Phoenix declared it “vigorous, ultimately magical…Packer does not do things by halves.” Buy tickets now.
Check out the video preview of the show, which features Kristin Villanueva as Helena and Kevin O’Donnell as Parolles (the Wall Street Journal declared: “Kristin Villanueva is fizzingly alive and responsive as Helena — she has the eye-catching energy of a star in the making — and Kevin O’Donnell is just as fine in a very different way as Parolles, the idiotic would-be fop who meets with a painfully shaming fate.”)
All’s Well That Ends Well, Tina Packer’s first directorial effort at Shakespeare & Company since 2005′s King John and one of the few Shakespeare titles she hasn’t yet helmed, is now in previews. Tina took some time out of her busy rehearsal schedule to sit down with us for a chat about the story, about love, honor and rock and roll. (The music you hear is a sample of some of the original music in the show, written by resident music director Bill Barclay).
The show opens this Friday at Founders’ Theatre. Buy tickets now.
Summertime is here, and with it another opening: All’s Well That Ends Well is the story of a boy and a girl in love—only he doesn’t know it yet. Dubbed a “problem play” by most scholars because it defies categorization, our production is part fairy tale, part myth, part feminist manifesto, and wholly musical and original. Check out the photos below. Buy tickets now.
All’s Well That Ends Well is directed by Tina Packer with original music by Bill Barclay. Lighting design by Les Dickert. Set design by Susan Zeeman Rogers. Costumes designed by Jacqueline Firkins. Choreography by Susan Dibble. Fight choreography by Ryan Winkles. Assistant directed by Gina Kaufman. Plays June 27–August 31, 2008. Photos by Kevin Sprague.
