Featured Members Archive

Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Post date: February 18, 2012 - 00:48

Established in 1935, the Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival is among the oldest and largest professional regional theatres in the country. Located in Ashland, Oregon, OSF is a cultural and recreational destination for more than 350,000 visitors per year. OSF has a company that numbers more than 550 (including over 100 actors), a budget of $30 million and an attendance of more than 414,000 in 2010. As many as nine plays are performed concurrently; the average attendee sees four plays and stays three days. In addition to its on-stage presentations, OSF provides playgoers with a wide range of activities during their visits to Ashland, including concerts, lectures, a pre-performance Green Show in the summer, free talks by members of the company and post-show discussions with the actors.  OSF also has wide-ranging educational programs, providing learning opportunities on the Festival campus for students, teachers and general playgoers as well as providing students and teachers, through its School Visit Program, exposure to the art of theatre in more than 100 schools throughout the West Coast.  The 2011 season, OSF’s 76th year, runs from February 18 through November 6, with 789 performances of 11 plays—four by Shakespeare and seven by classic and contemporary playwrights—in rotating repertory in three theatres: the outdoor Elizabethan Stage, the Angus Bowmer Theatre and the intimate New Theatre.  More information about OSF can be obtained at www.osfashland.org.

Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Elizabethan Stage. Cyrano de Bergerac (2006): Ensemble. Photo: T. Charles Erickson.

Gamut Theatre Group
Post date: February 18, 2012 - 00:47

Gamut Theatre Group is the combined company of Popcorn Hat Players Children’s Theatre and Harrisburg Shakespeare Company. We are an ensemble theatre with a small Core Company of actors and technicians who also “run the Gamut,” handling all administrative responsibilities. Our company’s size belies the incredible amount of quality programming we produce, with PHP presenting 8-10 original scripts of classic children’s stories per season and HSC staging four full productions of not just Shakespearean, but all types of classical works (both traditional and non-traditional), including our annual Free Shakespeare in the Park, a Harrisburg staple since 1994. Plus, our 2010 season continued and expanded upon our outreach tradition with a ground-breaking new initiative, the Stage Door Series, presenting scenically minimal, volunteer productions by devoted, professional artists that present classic material in innovative ways with a “Come as you are; Pay what you will” policy, continuing our work to ensure that socio-economic status has no bearing on access to excellent, live theatre.

From Left: Emily Gray as Gentlewoman 1, Kelly Kauterman as The Countess, Christina Closs as Gentlewoman 2, and Alex Jane Bailey as Helena

Shakespeare's Associates, dba Livermore Shakespeare Festival
Post date: February 18, 2012 - 00:46

Shakespeare's Associates, dba Livermore Shakespeare Festival, celebrated its sixth festival season this summer with Shakespeare's Macbeth and Ken Ludwig's Lend Me A Tenor. As the California Tri-Valley's only professional theater, Shakespeare's Associates presents two plays in rep each summer, one Shakespearean and one contemporary, as well as special events and educational programs throughout the year. The festival season takes place at Concannon Vineyard in front of the Ellen Rowe Concannon House,a two-story Victorian set amidst grapevines, hills and sweeping lawns. Audiences enjoy wine and dessert as they watch some of the best theater in the Tri-Valley.

In past years, the Victorian functioned as a set for both summer shows. This year, however, it served as an independent backdrop for Shakespeare's Associates' first, full set.  Designed by Randall A. Enlow, a seasoned professional and faculty member of University of the Pacific, the set consisted of ten steel portals with clip-on facings that rotated in rep and complemented the Victorian’s architecture and color. Wooden facings and bold decoration reproduced a 1930s Art Deco hotel for Lend Me A Tenor; jute facings interwoven with fabric in a pattern inspired by William Blake's "Inscription Over Hell Gate" represented an abstract heath for Macbeth.

Armando McClain as Macbeth and Jennifer Le Blanc as Lady Macbeth in Livermore Shakespeare Festival's 2011 production of Macbeth. Photo by Randy Large.

Houston Shakespeare Festival
Post date: February 18, 2012 - 00:46

Each summer, the Houston Shakespeare Festival produces a season of Shakespeare, or Shakespeare-inspired plays in repertory. It is the only theatre in our area devoted to staging the works of history’s greatest playwright in a setting reminiscent of the original Globe Theatre in London. Since its inception in 1975, HSF has entertained nearly half a million-theatergoing families in Hermann Park's Miller Outdoor Theatre. HSF is the only non-musical Equity theatre producing at Miller Outdoor Theatre and is completely free of charge to the community. Festival audiences are as diverse as Houston itself, with many people experiencing live theatre for the first time. As noted in Shakespeare Companies and Festivals: An International Guide, HSF boasts “audiences among the most ethnically diverse of any Shakespeare Festival in the country.” The University of Houston School of Theatre & Dance provides rehearsal space, scenery, costume shops, personnel in the areas of administration, development and more. HSF is recognized as an Equity Theatre and has attracted a large number of AEA Guest Artists, including, in 2011, Obie-Award winning director Leah C. Gardiner who directed Othello, which starred noted actor Seth Gilliam. HSF maintains relationships with the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America and the Shakespeare Globe Theatre.

Shakespeare WA
Post date: February 18, 2012 - 00:45

Shakespeare WA produces vibrant summer seasons of Shakespeare in the Park, in the stunning outdoor setting of Kings Park and Botanic Garden.  Located in Perth, Shakespeare in the Park is directed by Paige Newmark and runs for four weeks.  Last season’s attendance figures revealed that this event is the largest and most popular (non-musical) theatre event in Western Australia.

This summer, Romeo & Juliet was staged between 7 January and 5 February 2011 in its original Renaissance setting of Italy in 1600.  Admirably performed by Perth’s finest local talent,The Australian Stage review stated “They were up to the ever challenging task of making Shakespearean dialogue accessible to modern audiences.”

Shakespeare WA is highly committed to providing ‘Theatre for Everyone’ and this is reflected in our audience diversity.  This year an inaugural Auslan interpreted performance was a great hit with the deaf community, Companion Card enabled people with a disability to attend and free Teacher guides on CD provided educational support for student groups.

Next summer’s Shakespeare in the Park runs from 6 January through to 4 February 2012 and plans are afoot to present three productions across the season, which is a very exciting development.  Details will be announced on www.ShakespeareWA.com

The Actors (L-R) Nick Candy as 'Tybalt', Nick Pages-Oliver as 'Benvolio', Cody Fern as 'Romeo' and Will O'Mahony as 'Mercutio'