Southwest Shakespeare Company
By Bill Cain
Feb. 28 – March 22, 2014
Anita Farnsworth Theater
Mesa Arts Center
1 East Main Street, Mesa, AZ 85201
(480) 644 6500
In London, 1605, a down-and-out playwright called Shagspeare receives a royal commission to write a play promoting the government’s version of the Guy Fawkes’ Gunpowder Plot. As Shag navigates the dangerous course between writing a lie or losing his head, his devoted theatre troupe helps him negotiate each step along the way.
Chicago Shakespeare Festival
March 13 – May 4, 2014
Directed by Gary Griffin
[button url=”Ticket: http://www.chicagoshakes.com/plays_and_events/roadshow#sthash.rCQ0Hj79.dpuf” target=”blank”]Buy Tickets[/button]
Associate Artistic Director Gary Griffin brings you not one, but two musicals, Gypsy and Road Show, that feature the extraordinary talents of Stephen Sondheim—both inspired by real stories of ambitious Americans in pursuit of their dreams. Based on the lives of the boldly enterprising brothers Addison and Wilson Mizner, the musical journey of Road Show spans forty years—from the Alaskan Gold Rush to the Florida real estate boom in the 1930s. Traversing the continent in a variety of get-rich-quick schemes, the brothers stick together through experiences that change their lives in unexpected ways.
Chicago Shakespeare Festival
March 30 – April 13, 2014
Adaptor/Director: Emma Rice
[button url=”http://www.chicagoshakes.com/plays_and_events/tristan#sthash.7evS10J2.dpuf” target=”blank”]Buy Tickets[/button]
Lauded all around the world for its trademark vitality, the artistic collective from Cornwall, England, Kneehigh makes its long-awaited Chicago debut with the iconic work that first catapulted the company to international fame. Marrying gorgeous music and ingenious staging with cheeky humor and Wagnerian intensity, Kneehigh now reimagines one of the world’s oldest love stories. Cornish King Mark is at war; he rules with his head, not his heart. But he hasn’t counted on falling head over heels for his enemy’s sister, or expected the arrival of the enigmatic Tristan.
Chicago Shakespeare Festival
April 29 – June 15, 2014
Director: Christopher Luscombe
[button url=”http://www.chicagoshakes.com/plays_and_events/henryv#sthash.h3ESXDbR.dpuf” target=”blank”]Buy Tickets[/button]
“Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more!” In a rousing finale to the 2014 season, Shakespeare’s powerful history play takes center stage in our magnificent Courtyard Theater for the very first time. Acclaimed British director Christopher Luscombe, whose work has been featured at the Royal Shakespeare Company, sheds new light on the Bard’s legendary coming-of-age story. Against all odds, a charismatic young monarch confronted by the ferocity of war proves his worth as a man—and king. Henry V is Shakespeare’s rallying cry, celebrating the power of language to summon battlefields from thin air and ignite our souls to action.
Southwest Shakespeare Company
May 15 – June 1, 2014
Desert Botanical Garden
1201 N. Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, AZ
A new adaptation of Shakespeare’s immortal A Midsummer Night’s Dream in partnership with the Desert Botanical Garden.
This new vision will include bold visual elements, stunning costumes, lighting and stage magic designed to highlight the Garden. Two seating options are available: general admission and reserved bistro seating for four. If you would like reserved seating, let us seat you at a bistro table. Guests can purchase food & a full cash bar will be available.
![Richard III - Oregon Shakespeare Fest, Ashland, OR](http://shakespearecentral.org/events/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/osf_richard-III-300x168.jpg)
Richard III
- June 3 – October 10, 2014
- Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Ashland, OR – Allen Elizabethan Theatre
- By William Shakespeare | Directed by James Bundy
Bad to the Bone
The king you love to hate returns. Richard III is the cunning royal reprobate so deformed in body and spirit that even his mother rues the day he was born. His path to England’s throne is murderous. He rules with a tyrant’s fist. He’s backstabbing and bloody. Yet he is so mesmerizing that we dare you to look away. Historically, Richard III may not have been such a villain, but where’s the fun in that? Shakespeare’s reworking of history is tragedy at its best—deep, rich and unapologetic.