Bad Dates is now open in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre. Berkshirefinearts.com says, “Aspenlieder sparkles…alternately hilarious and heartbreaking…audiences will love it”. Check out her latest video blog–direct from the Bad Dates opening night party. (To check out video blog number 3, visit the Bad Dates mini-site.) Buy tickets now.
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(Media may take a moment to load. Please be sure you have the latest Flash Player. Subscribe to the Shakespeare & Company Podcast via iTunes; no iPod or mp3 player needed!)
Dear Friends:
Welcome to 2009. With the upcoming inauguration and economic news swirling around us, it promises to be a most fascinating year! 2008 showed what a Company of committed artist managers can do, when backed by friends, companies and foundations who share ideals. Continue reading ‘A Video Message from Tina Packer’
Elizabeth Aspenlieder dishes on the rehearsal process, working with a director on a one-woman show, and more. Buy tickets now for Bad Dates, written by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Adrianne Krstansky (playing January 9 through March 8 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre).
Visit the Bad Dates Mini-site for all the info about the show and our Bad Dates Stories Contest, where you can win dinner for two in Lenox and tickets to the show! You never know: your next date could be the best one. Check it out now.
Remember the worst date you ever had to suffer through? Tell us about it! Share your story with Shakespeare & Company and our panel of surprise judges will pick the best—er, worst—Bad Date Story. The winner will receive another shot at a truly good date: dinner for two on us and two tickets to see Bad Dates at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre this spring! Plus meet Elizabeth Aspenlieder after the show!
Visit our Bad Dates mini-site at Shakespeare.org/baddates to learn more and how to enter. Or, if you’re ready to share, post your story right here in the comments below!
Join Elizabeth on her Bad Dates journey with her video blog. Episode one is posted below. Continue reading ‘Bad Dates Stories Contest & Elizabeth’s Video Blog’
The Fall Festival of Shakespeare is now over, thanks to the courageous acts of over 450 young artists and their parents, administrators from each of the ten participating high schools, teachers, custodians, bus drivers, and the Shakespeare & Company staff of over forty directors, designers and technicians. All in all, this year’s Fall Festival of Shakespeare drew larger audiences and raised more money than any previous Festival.
We’ve got a special treat for those who couldn’t make it, or those who want to relive the excitement of those four days. Check out the video below to see the entire four days of the Fall Festival of Shakespeare—performances, technical rehearsals, and changeovers—in under four minutes.
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 exuberance of a rock concert, the camaraderie of a high school pep rally, and the enthusiasm that can only be mustered by several hundred teenaged students armed with Shakespeare’s canon will all be found at Shakespeare & Company’s 20th annual Fall Festival of Shakespeare. This landmark year of this nationally celebrated program will put on display the transformative power of Shakespeare’s words in young people’s lives, as teams of Shakespeare & Company education artists take up residence at local schools and lead students on a nine-week exploration that reveals the vibrancy, power and relevance of Shakespeare’s work in today’s world.
This year’s Festival, its 20th anniversary, is now underway: after two weeks of training in Lenox, the ten teams of Directors—Education Artists from all over the country—have completed recruiting in the schools, auditioning and casting their plays (not to mention cutting the plays down to 90 minutes!). Many schools are holding their first rehearsals today!
The Festival culminates with students from each of the 10 participating schools performing a Shakespeare play at their own school and then again as part of a four-day mini-marathon at Shakespeare & Company’s Founders’ Theatre, where its own Main Stage productions are mounted every summer. Shakespeare & Company’s set, props and costume departments collaborate with the education artists and the students to fashion a unique take on each play. This year’s marathon of student performances runs November 20 through 23.
Check out these videos to see what Fall Festival students and education artists have to say. And if you’ve never experienced the Fall Festival before, make plans to see it this year, November 20th-23rd (ticket info). Continue reading ’20th Annual Fall Festival of Shakespeare Now Underway’
