Shakespeare & Company

You may have seen Twelfth Night, perhaps a dozen times. But don't miss one more sharply directed by Allyn Burrows at Shakespere & Company in Lenox. What a hoot yet again to see the absurd Malvolio, a love sotted fool, decked out in yellow stockings with crossed garters. Expect a raucous night of fun, fun, fun.

There will be four plays by Shakespeare. Contemporary plays include Pulitzer Prize finalist The Waverly Gallery by Kenneth Lonergan; Tony Award nominated play The Children by Lucy Kirkwood; Pulitzer Prize winner Topdog/Underdog by MacArthur Foundation Fellowship recipient Suzan-Lori Parks; and Time Stands Still by Obie Award winner Donald Margulies.

Dennis Krausnick was a leader of Shakespeare & Compan, in Lenox, since its inception. In 1976 he was awarded an M.F.A. in Acting from New York University. It was at N.Y.U. where he met Tina Packer. They married in 1998. In 1978 Dennis helped found Shakespeare & Company with Tina and Kristin Linklater.

Shakespeare & Company announces its 2018 summer season. Exploring themes of Delight, Deceit, and Desire, the season includes three Shakespeare plays: Macbeth, As You Like It, and Love's Labor's Lost; plus the New England Premiere of Morning After Grace by Carey Crim; Creditors by August Strindberg adapted by David Greig; Heisenberg by Laurence Olivier Award winner Simon Stephens; Mothers and Sons by Tony Award-winning playwright Terrence McNally; and HIR by Pulitzer Prize finalist Taylor Mac.

For its fall foliage production Shakespeare & Company have produced a corker. Regge Life has directed four masters of the company in Yasmina Reza's 2009 Tony wnner God of Carnage. The all star ensemble includes S&Co. veterans Elizabeth Aspenlieder, Allyn Burrows, Jonathan Croy and Kristin Wold. Saving the best for last it is the most hilarious comedy of the Berkshire season.

Shakespeare & Company announces that Adam Davis, long-time Managing Director of the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and former Company Manager of the La Jolla Playhouse, has been named as the Company's new Managing Director.

A great production of Merchant of Venice requires inspired casting. The Tina Packer production has a truly magnficent Shylock in company member Jonathan Epstein taking on the complex and demanding role for the fifth time. It is his second with Packer. This version also has a first rate Portia in Tamara Hickey and suitably apathetic and melancholy Antonio played with nuance by John Hadden. It was Packer's intent to take the gloves off in attacking issues of race, religion, gender, homosexuality and racism.

Shakespeare & Company announceds its lineup for the 2016 summer season, which includes three Shakespeare plays: The Merchant of Venice, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Twelfth Night, plus the Regional Premieres of Or, by Liz Duffy Adams and Lauren Gunderson’s The Taming. Additional titles include Ugly Lies the Bone by Lindsey Ferrentino, a bracing drama fresh from an acclaimed Off-Broadway production, Sotto Voce by Pulitzer Prize-winner Nilo Cruz, and the return of Stephan Wolfert in Cry "Havoc!"

The Trojan War was likely to have occurred circa 1,200 B.C. It spawned the epic poem The Iliad which was passed along by troubadours and finally transcribed with the development of Ancient Greek around 800 B.C. In a riveting 90 minute, one man show for Shakespeare & Company, Michael F. Toomey provides excerpts and contemporary commentary on one of the founding works of Western literature.

Taibi Magar, in her directorial debut at Shakespeare & Company, takes audiences on a wild ride through the city of Ephesus, where two sets of identical twins who were separated at birth, collide. What ensues is hilarious, due to the acting skills of the cast and Magar's vision of bringing a modern day spin to Shakespeare's shortest comedy. The result is 90 minutes of rollicking fun.

The cycle of history plays by Shakespeare continues and unfortunately ends this season with a chamber production of the ever popular Henry V. This scaled back drama with four male and four female actors playing multiple roles has been directed by Jenna Ware. In the title role Ryan Winkles is magnificent. It adds another dimension to a superb actor who previously has been featured in comic roles.

Shakespeare & Company presents its lineup for the 2015 summer season, which includes three Shakespeare plays, Henry V, The Comedy of Errors and Hamlet, plus the Regional Premiere of Red Velvet by Lolita Chakrabarti, and the World Premiere of Jane Anderson’s Mother of the Maid, starring Tina Packer. In addition, the summer season includes The Unexpected Man by Yasmina Reza, and opens with the provocative new play by Sarah Treem, The How and the Why. The summer season was announced today by Rick Dildine, his first as Shakespeare & Company’s new Executive Director.

When Tony Simotes took over Shakespeare & Company from founder Tina Packer five years ago it soon was revealed that the company was on the brink of ruin. With negotiations and austerity the company was put on a more secure footing. It is now more stable as leadership passes to Rick Dildine..

Sitting through Henry IV Parts 1 and 2 can be a long slog on Elizabethan inspired cruel on the bottom benches at Shakespeare & Company. In a brisk, rich and often hilarious reduction and conflation by Jonathan Epstein to two long acts with intermission, clocking at three hours, through this delicious production mind prevails over matter. One's sore bottom in this case. During his 450th year S&Co. has been presenting Shakespeare up the wazoo.

Seven actors masterfully play a modern version of Shakespeare's timeless tale of Julius Caesar. Packer got the idea of seven actors from Shakespeare himself, who used that number of actors when he took his plays on tour.

There isn't a lot of depth and substance to Noel Coward's classic 1930 comedy Private Lives. Under artistic director Tony Simotes the game actors of Shakespeare & Company are striving to create an upbeat hilarious production. Through March 30 theatre is alive and well in Lenox as we wait for signs of Spring.

Shakespeare & Company has planned a celebratory season packed with Shakespeare, modern works, premieres and special events in honor of the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare’s birth. Tickets for the 2014 Performance Season go on sale in Mid-February. For specific date and info please check online at: www.shakespeare.org or by calling the Box Office at (413) 637-3353, or in person at 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA.

Not long after he took over as Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company in 2009 Tony Simotes had to deal with near extinction caused by some $10 million in debt. With the board and managing director, Nicholas J. Puma, great strides were accomplished to reduce and restructure debt bringing stablity to the company which Tina Packer founded in 1979. In a major change the board has created the new position of Executive Director, Jerry Bilik, whom Simotes and Puma will report to. Those close to the company see this as a long term step foward.

Shakespeare & Company’s 36th Performance Season just keeps getting bigger and better! Artistic Director Tony Simotes is pleased to announce additional programming filled with dance, music, zany antics and more with four new additions to the already scheduled line-up.

Following a two year tour of Women of Will the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company, Tina Packer, returns with The Beauty Queen of Leenane co starring Elizabeth Aspenlieder. Last summer Olympia Dukakis and John Douglas Thompson had hit shows with The Tempest and Satchmo at the Waldorf. This summer they will perform together in the 20th century classic Mother Courage.

The Liar has all of the ingredients of a perfect French farce. The truth will set most people free, but for Dorante (our disingenuous hero) a series of fibs may pave a convoluted road to happiness. The Liar was originally penned by the classic 17th Century playwright Pierre Corneille, in 1664. This translation by award-winning American playwright David Ives merges the iambic humor of classic verse with a contemporary twist.

“I’m absolutely ecstatic to have Olympia join us again for our 36th Season,” says Simotes. “Our collaboration on The Tempest proved to be a successful one both artistically and personally. It was another chapter in our rich history together, and I’m excited to continue writing that history next summer. Olympia has an infectious energy that inspires one's artistic soul. She’s a dear friend and mentor. I’m eager to explore the depths of this fascinating play with her and Apollo, and once again share her immense talent with our audiences.”

In a sendup of the Hitchock classic 39 Steps a game and lively cast of four play a combined 32 characters. This fast paced production, directed by Jonathan Croy, slams and careens about from London to Scotland and back again. In the fall production at Shakespeare & Company superb actors are let off the leash in over the top, flat out farce.

In 1964 Louis Armstrong knocked the Beatles off the top of the charts with the hit "Hello Dolly." It was a compelling answer to a New York Times critic who pronounced him washed up. The bug eyed, grimacing, clowning, handkerchief waving Satchmo relaunched a career as the first super star in jazz. . The superb Terry Teachout play, Satchmo at the Waldorf, starring John Douglas Thompson, catches him after the gig in his dressing room just months before he died in 1971.

An ingenious thriller, the ultimate murder mystery, The 39 Steps has it all. Shakespeare & Company opens the 2012-2013 Fall & Winter season with this hilarious adaptation of John Buchan’s novel, which also draws inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film. Featuring a seasoned ensemble including Elizabeth Aspenlieder (Bad Dates), Jason Asprey (Parasite Drag), David Joseph (The Tempest), and Josh Aaron McCabe (Hound of the Baskervilles), The 39 Steps offers an intriguing, sidesplitting evening or afternoon at the theatre. The 39 Steps runs from September 22 through November 4 in S&Co.’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre.