Summer Shakespeare Festival

Summer Shakespeare Festival

 The Old Globe Theatre     5/29–9/25/2011

Shakespeare’s last masterpiece, one of his most popular comedies, and a Tony Award-winning bio-play about Mozart take center stage during the Old Globe’s outdoor summer season at the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. Performed in repertory, the three plays, Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing, and Amadeus, feature the talents of acclaimed festival veterans, artistic director Adrian Noble and actors Jonno Roberts, Miles Anderson, and Jay Whittaker.

The Tempest is the final and perhaps most beloved play penned by Shakespeare. Deftly combining humor, romance, and adventure, the Tempest is set on a remote island where the deposed duke-turned magician, Prospero, plots his revenge against those who wronged him while arranging a suitable mate for his daughter. The Globe’s production will be directed by Adrian Noble, who once helmed London’s Royal Shakespeare Company, and star veteran stage actor Miles Anderson as Prospero.

Much Ado About Nothing centers on two couples: Claudio and Hero, who are admittedly in love but stumble to the altar no thanks to the machinations of Don John, and Benedick and Beatrice, an arrogant bachelor and his favorite sparring partner who deny their infatuation with one another. Filled with witty wordplay and clever plot twists, Much Ado About Nothing casts Jonno Roberts and his real-life wife, screen and stage actress Georgia Hatzis, in the roles of Benedick and Beatrice.

Though the story of Amadeus is known to most audiences from the 1984 Academy Award-winning film, it was originally written as a multi Tony Award-winning Broadway play. For the Globe’s revival, Adrian Noble will direct the infamous rivalry between composer Antonio Salieri (Miles Anderson) and upstart musical genius, Amadeus Wolfgang Mozart (Jay Whittaker). Part biography and part murder-mystery, Amadeus will feature some of the greatest music ever created to bring the renowned composer to life.