Click here for a downloadable calendar for dates of all 2012 summer season performances.

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare

“Dost thou think because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?”

Directed by Philip C. Sneed
Co-production with the Arvada Center

        A classic case of mistaken identity washes up on the shores of Illyria — known today as Albania — spawning comic antics and utter abandon. Having survived a shipwreck, Viola dresses as a boy to become the page of Duke Orsino. Though smitten by her new master, she must obey when he sends her to woo the Countess Olivia on his behalf. Meanwhile, tricked into believing she shares his love, Olivia’s stuffy steward Malvolio hysterically humiliates himself to please her. This year’s production features a rich late 18^th-century European design and setting. 

Richard III by William Shakespeare

“A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse.”

Directed by Tina Packer

         When Shakespeare’s most Machiavellian monarch, Richard III, confesses his own murderous machinations in a quest to gain the English throne and implicates you as a co-conspirator, you’ll be mesmerized — even as you recoil from his brutally amoral 

schemes. This vivid, suspenseful period production, directed by the legendary Tina Packer, founder of Shakespeare & Company, is a meditation on power politics — and its dangers — that raises unsettling questions about our own world.   

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, adapted by Ken Ludwig

“Fifteen men on a dead man’s chest….”

Directed by Carolyn Howarth

           Cap’n Jack Sparrow has nothing on Long John Silver, the roguish, irresistible hero-villain in the original pirate adventure, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Ken Ludwig’s high-flying 2007 adaptation follows young Jim Hawkins as he takes to the high seas in search of treasure and contends with a band of buccaneers including the brutal Billy Bones, sinister Blind Pew, and brash Anne Bonny. Through swordplay, treachery and musket smoke on a far-flung isle, Jim finds himself becoming a man — and you may find your yearning for adventure kindled.   

Noises Off by Michael Frayn

“The funniest play written in my lifetime.” — Frank Rich, The New York Times

Directed by Lynne Collins

            Send a fourth-rate acting company on tour to perform an atrocious bedroom “comedy” — featuring gratuitous lingerie, uncooperative props, and a painful lack of talent — and what do you get? In the case of Michael Frayn’s classic play-within-a-play comedy, Noises Off, more laughter than you can shake a sardine at. As the company stumbles and fumbles through three progressively chaotic performances of “Nothing On,” you’ll see the players reveal themselves in all their bumbling, slapstick glory from onstage and backstage, as both ridiculous characters and inept performers.  

Women of Will by Tina Packer

The complete journey, from Kate to Cordelia

Directed by Eric Tucker

         Join Tina Packer and her acting partner Nigel Gore as they explore the creative evolution of William Shakespeare’s consciousness through his depiction of women. Deeply inhabiting and interpreting characters from the Bard’s rich cast of female alter egos, from poisonous Lady Macbeth to winsome Juliet, Packer takes us on a journey from the narrow confines of the shrew to an expansive new world of hope and strength for women. Performed in its entirety for the first time outside of Massachusetts, each play in this epic, five-part cycle stands on its own, and the plays can be seen in any order. 

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