From our friends at the Shakespeare Theatre Company...
Artistic Director Michael Kahn Announces the Shakespeare Theatre Company's 2014-15 Season
Midway through Shakespeare Theatre Company’s current season, Artistic Director Michael Kahn announced today the Company’s 2014-2015 Season. Kahn has put together a classic and entertaining season, continuing to stake STC’s claim as “the nation’s foremost Shakespeare company” (The Wall Street Journal) while “[making] the Bard a relevant voice in our current affairs” (DC Metro Theatre Arts.)
The new season features Shakespeare’s warm-spirited and light-hearted comedy As You Like It directed by STC newcomer Michael Attenborough. Molière’s masterpiece of religious hypocrisy, Tartuffe, directed by Dominique Serrand, will be produced as part of the Clarice Smith Repertory Series alongside the World Premiere of Alexis Piron’s The Metromaniacs, translated and adapted by David Ives. Also included in the lineup is the return of Shakespeare’s final play, The Tempest, directed by Ethan McSweeny and the beloved musical comedy, Man of La Mancha, directed by STC Associate Director Alan Paul. The sixth production will be the Washington D.C. premiere of Pirandello's Enrico IV, in a new version by Tom Stoppard and will be directed by Michael Kahn.
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| STC Artistic Director Michael Kahn |
“This season has a little bit of something for everyone, from vivid reimaginings of timeless classics to brand new adaptations of plays almost lost to our history” says Artistic Director Michael Kahn. “I am pleased to welcome internationally renowned directors Michael Attenborough and Dominique Serrand to the Shakespeare Theatre Company. I have wanted to work with Michael for a very long time and I’m looking forward to what is sure to be a beautiful production of As You Like It. Dominque is the co-founder of the Tony Award-winning Théâtre de la Jeune Lune and coupled with Steven Epp’s comic wizardry, I know Tartuffe will be a play that our audiences really enjoy.”
“One of the great joys of this season was seeing Alan Paul’s success with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” Kahn continues. “Next season, Alan will direct Man of La Mancha, one of the best musicals ever adapted from a great classic, and by my reckoning, the best adaptation of Cervantes’ Don Quixote in any medium. And of course it will be our first Tempest in many years, and I am very excited for Ethan to be at the helm. His version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream was truly magical, it seems very fitting that he return for The Tempest. As for Pirandello's Enrico IV, I think everyone will agree that Pirandello is one of the seminal playwrights of the 20th century, ahead of his time. This play is really a surprise: you don’t have any idea how it’s going to end. Tom Stoppard did the translation and adaptation of the play, and we’re going to do the Washington premiere. It’s Stoppard and Pirandello and a little bit of Michael Kahn.”
SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY’S 2014-2015 SEASON
William Shakespeare’s
As You Like It
Directed by Michael Attenborough
Lansburgh Theatre
William Shakespeare’s
The Tempest
Directed by Ethan McSweeny
Sidney Harman Hall
Alexis Piron’s
The Metromaniacs
Translated and adapted by David Ives
Directed by Michael Kahn
Lansburgh Theatre
Man of La Mancha
Directed by Alan Paul
Sidney Harman Hall
Molière’s
Tartuffe
Directed by Dominique Serrand
Lansburgh Theatre
Pirandello's
Enrico IV
In a new version by Tom Stoppard
Directed by Michael Kahn
Sidney Harman Hall
*Plays, artists and dates are subject to change.
About the Shakespeare Theatre Company:
Recipient of the 2012 Regional Theatre Tony Award®, the Shakespeare Theatre Company (STC) has become one of the nation’s leading theatre companies. Today, STC is synonymous with artistic excellence and making classical theatre more accessible.
Under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Kahn and Managing Director Chris Jennings, STC’s innovative approach to Shakespeare and other classic playwrights has earned it the reputation as the nation’s premier classical theatre company. By focusing on works with profound themes, complex characters and poetic language written by Shakespeare, his contemporaries and the playwrights he influenced, the Company’s artistic mission is unique among theatre companies: to present theatre of scope and size in an imaginative, skillful and accessible American style that honors the playwrights’ language and intentions while viewing their work through a 21st-century lens.
A leader in arts education, STC has a stable of initiatives that teach and excite learners of all ages, from school programs and acting classes to discussion series as well as accessible programs like the annual Free For All, one of STC’s most beloved annual traditions, allowing audiences to experience Shakespeare at no charge.
Located in our nation’s capital, STC performs in two theatres, the Lansburgh Theatre and Sidney Harman Hall in downtown Washington, D.C., creating a dynamic, cultural hub of activity that showcases STC as well as outstanding local performing arts groups and nationally renowned organizations. STC moved into the 451-seat Lansburgh Theatre in March 1992, after six years in residency in the Folger Library’s Elizabethan theatre. At that time the Penn Quarter neighborhood was not considered desirable by many; since then, STC has helped drive its revitalization. The 774-seat Sidney Harman Hall opened in October 2007.
