American Shakespeare Center

Now Until April 5, 2014

In the bawdy, riotous tradition of all his city comedies, Ben Jonson’s Epicene explores love, sex, and trickery in Early Modern London. Urban playboy, Dauphine, wants his peaceand- quiet-loving Uncle Morose’s fortune and hatches an elaborate plan to get it. Take a suspiciously silent bride, all of Dauphine’s London cronies, and a deal that is simply too good to be true; and Morose, along with the audience, gets a wedding day he won’t soon forget.

American Shakespeare Center

Now until April 6, 2014

Disguised lovers, tricky servants, and well-meaning parents cross and double-cross one another along the canals of Venice in Carlo Goldoni’s slapstick filled, comic gem. The characters’ search for a happy ending depends entirely on the titular servant Truffaldino, who is constantly on the lookout for a decent meal. Truffaldino’s attempt to double his wages unravels with delicious mayhem in this joyous, 18thcentury lark.

American Shakespeare Center

Now Until April 4, 2014

After wealthy Athenian Timon spends all his money entertaining, supporting, and bailing out his friends, he anticipates their help in his time of need. When his “friends” turn him down one-by-one, Timon transforms from Shakespeare’s most liberal spendthrift into his most tight-fisted misanthrope. A perfect play for our turbulent financial times, Timon of Athens makes us question the meaning of friendship, generosity, and gratitude.

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

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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.

KING LEAR – Theater For A New Audience, Brooklyn, NY

By William Shakespeare
Direction: Arin Arbus
Featuring: Michael Pennington
Scenic Designer: Riccardo Hernandez
Costume Designer: Susan Hilferty
Lighting Designer: Marcus Doshi
Composer: Michael Attias

March 14 – May 4, 2014

Considered to be one of the greatest plays in the English language, King Lear tells the story of a savage familial power struggle that follows Lear’s misguided decision to apportion his kingdom before his death.

For Arin Arbus, the play’s taut intertwining of the political and the personal and its breathtaking power to distill an entire complex world into a story of two families is riveting. Moreover, she finds “its radical political assertions remarkable. Shakespeare challenges the very foundations of Western civilization, pointing out the absurdity of privilege, entitlement, social and economic hierarchies, and man’s assertion of his power over nature.”

This production is sponsored by Deloitte.