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.

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.

In the summer of 1974, the Brady and Partridge Families, recently canceled by ABC and no longer under America’s watchful eye, met in a blood-soaked, passion-filled, vengeance-fueled, very special episode of Shakespearean proportions.

Syracuse Shakespeare Festival

April 4 – April 14, 2014

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Our second plunge into 17th century French comedy gives us even more laughs than last year’s Molierean tickler.  It’s another comedy by a French icon, The Suitors, by Jean Racine, Judith Harris directing; one of the most hilarious French plays ever written, Racine’s only comedy (1688), tells of a judge named Nigaud who has lost his mind from overwork but is still possessed with the desire to go to court and try cases day and night.  After a brief intermission the second half of this double bill gives you, Commedia dell’Arte, Lynn Barbato directing; the roots of improvisation date back to 16th century Italy where “stock” character types mocked social conventions and they’ll be mocking unconventionally for your laughter and delight.   

Folger Theatre

April 17 – May 25, 2014

Directed by Ben Steinfeld and Jessie Austrian

The Shakespeare Theater Company

Sidney Harman Hall

Henry IV, Part 1

Directed by Michael Kahn

March 25 – June 7, 2014

“The better part of valor is, discretion.”

A young prince must decide between tavern roughhousing and the burden of his father’s legacy, in the coming-of-age story of heroism, corruption and war. STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn directs the masterful Stacy Keach (King Lear, Macbeth) who plays Shakespeare’s beloved character, Falstaff.