Chicago Shakespeare Theater

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) Artistic Director Barbara Gaines and Executive Director Criss Henderson announced the productions slated for the Theater's 20th Anniversary Season.  The season kicks off with both a leap forward and a nod to the past this summer with CST's debut at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Shakespeare's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. Barbara Gaines' production of Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2 will open at the Swan Theatre on July 6, 2006, featuring many of Chicago's leading actors, including Dale Benson, Kate Fry, Kevin Gudahl, Susan Hart, Scott Jaeck, Timothy Edward Kane, Ross Lehman, Mike Nussbaum, John Reeger, Robert Scogin, Greg Vinkler, Jay Whittaker and Bruce A. Young.  Chicago Shakespeare Theater's production is a part of the historic, first-ever RSC Complete Works Festival—a year-long celebration presenting the entire Shakespearean canon, with productions mounted by the RSC alongside some of the world's most respected theater companies. Upon the company's arrival back in Chicago, a grand fête is planned at the Red Lion Pub—birthplace of Chicago Shakespeare.  CST artists and supporters will gather on August 3, 2006—exactly 20 years to the day that Barbara Gaines staged the company's inaugural workshop production of Henry V on the Pub's rooftop.

Chicago Shakespeare's 20th Anniversary Subscription Series begins with Hamlet (September 2 - November 18, 2006), one of Shakespeare's most revered and studied plays directed by Terry Hands, the internationally renowned British theater artist and former Artistic Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Hands' award-winning Broadway productions include The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Much Ado About Nothing and Macbeth.

One of Shakespeare's rarely performed plays, The Two Noble Kinsmen (September 26 - December 3, 2006) will be staged by acclaimed director Darko Tresnjak in the theater Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare. Growing up in Eastern Europe and studying in America, Tresnjak developed an imaginative eye influenced by his extensive work with Philadelphia's Mum Puppettheater. In addition to serving as Artistic Director of San Diego's Old Globe Summer Shakespeare Festival, his work has been seen at New York's Public Theater, Williamstown Theatre Festival, and at regional theaters throughout the country. The Two Noble Kinsmen is a classic love triangle—and the last words that Shakespeare wrote for the stage. The bond between two cousins—best friends and courageous soldiers—is challenged by war, imprisonment and their attraction to a beautiful princess.

Chicago Shakespeare continues its commitment to the development of 'New Classics" (Kabuki Lady Macbeth, 2005 and A Flea in Her Ear, 2006) with a new musical version of The Three Musketeers (December 16, 2006 - February 18, 2007). David H. Bell returns to CST to stage the production, based on the popular classic novel by Alexandre Dumas, with a score by George Stiles (Honk!, Mary Poppins), lyrics by Paul Leigh, and book by Peter Raby, from an original concept by William Hobbs.

 
To conclude the 20th Anniversary Subscription Series, Artistic Director Barbara Gaines stages one of Shakespeare's most passionate plays, Troilus and Cressida (April 13 - June 24, 2007). Set in the midst of the Trojan War, the doomed love of Troilus and Cressida sets a pattern for all relationships destroyed by circumstance, misunderstanding and deceit.

The 2006/2007 World Stage series will continue to shower attention on our city and our artists, as Chicago Shakespeare seats its work alongside other dramatists and actors of global distinction. In between each Subscription Series offering comes an exclusive international presentation. This year, CST adds to its international portfolio, works from South Africa and Russia, as well as a co-production with the legendary marionette company from Milan, Italy.

The holiday season brings to Chicago an all-male cast, Hailing from Russia, drawn from Moscow's great acting companies performing the Bard's gender-bending romantic comedy, Twelfth Night (November 22 - December 3, 2006.) First performed at The Chekhov International Festival, this award-winning production was created by founding artists of the famed British-based theater company, Cheek By Jowl—director Declan Donnellan and designer Nick Ormerod—and will be presented in Russian with projected English translation.

The past, present and future of South Africa take the stage this winter in Amajuba: Like Doves We Rise (January 31 - February 11, 2007). Conceived and directed by Yael Farber, Amajuba follows five young South African theater artists telling their personal stories in a fusion of language, movement and music. Based on the details of their own and fellow artists' childhoods in the ghettos of apartheid South Africa, each artist has a different history but all are tales of survival and hope.

In a spring collaboration with Italy's world-renowned Compagnia Carlo Colla e Figli, the country's oldest and most respected classical Italian marionette company, Chicago Shakespeare presents the World Premiere of Marionette Macbeth (March 13-25, 2007). Throughout Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, marionette puppets were among the most popular and sophisticated theatrical forms, performing the great works of opera, music and drama of the day. This world premiere adaptation of Macbeth will be brought to life with a cast of one hundred, three-foot-tall marionettes—designed, built and manipulated by Compagnia Carlo Colla e Figli's master craftsmen— and given dramatic voice by Chicago Shakespeare actors under the direction of Kate Buckley.

The decision to make CST's home on Navy Pier was born, in part, to expand the Theater's commitment to families—in addition to the student groups served in its Team Shakespeare program. Over the past six years, CST has become an established destination for family entertainment—from musicals to abridged Shakespeare productions.

The 20th Anniversary Season will extend Chicago Shakespeare's commitment to family audiences beyond the summer months, evolving into a year-round schedule of theatrical productions under the banner of CST FAMILY. Charter Family Memberships will offer discounted tickets and exclusive access to the work, making Navy Pier and Chicago Shakespeare an integral part of family life throughout the coming season.  

CST Family begins with the whimsical world of Dr. Seuss in a production of Seussical: The Musical (June 30 - August 20, 2006), directed by Eric Rosen, with musical direction by Tom Murray. Based on the works of children's author Theodor Seuss Geisel (a.k.a. Dr. Seuss), Seussical: The Musical is written by the Tony Award-winning team of Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens (Ragtime, Once On This Island, My Favorite Year). Seussical seamlessly intertwines characters, stories and themes from more than 14 Dr. Seuss classics.

Macbeth is given a comedic twist in MacHomer: The Simpsons do Macbeth (July 5-23, 2006), a one-man vocal spectacle starring Rick Miller, giving spot-on impressions of characters from the hit TV series The Simpsons in an imaginatively staged, multimedia update of Shakespeare's tragedy. Performances will be held in the theater Upstairs at Chicago Shakespeare.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater and The Chicago Chamber Musicians will present eight performances of their original production Witches, Wizards, Spells and Elves: The Magic of Shakespeare (January, 2007). Composer Bruce Adolphe was commissioned by CST and CCM to create the one-hour concert's five movements combining 13 musicians, six actors and excerpts from the texts of Shakespeare's most magical plays. Following each concert, musicians and artists mingle with audience members in the Theater's lobby for autograph-signing and instrument demonstrations.

Short Shakespeare! The Taming of the Shrew (January 27 - March 3, 2007) introduces families to a 75-minute abridged production of one of Shakespeare's most popular romantic comedies, directed by David H. Bell. In this high-spirited battle of words and wits, two headstrong people learn about themselves and commitment—as each tries to teach the other a thing or two. Although the story's humor has inspired several incarnations for stage and screen, it is Shakespeare's wit that engages the audience with playful repartee.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater brings Aesop's timeless fables to life in the World Premiere of a CST-commissioned family musical, How Can You Run with a Shell on Your Back? (February 22 - March 25, 2007). With music and lyrics by Michael Mahler and Alan Schmuckler, the musical features six students in after-school detention, which is transformed into a once-in-a-lifetime adventure when a mysterious stranger shows them the power of a good fable. The Tortoise and the Hare, The Ant and the Grasshopper, and Androcles and the Lion are retold through imaginative performances and memorable songs.