Shakespeare & Company

Shakespeare & Company has just received an $800,000 challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation. The funds were released after the Company raised an additional $1.5 million bringing its $10 million Capital Campaign , launched at its 30th Anniversary Gala in May 2007, to a successful conclusion. The centerpiece of the Campaign has been the creation of the Bernstein Center for the Performing Arts , a production center including state of the art rehearsal studios , new scene and property shops , and the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre.

An all-star troupe of Shakespeare & Company talent comes together this summer for an unforgettable rendering of Shakespeare’s gripping Richard III. In the whirligig of its ambitious plots, the beauty of its language, and the chilling magnetism of its haunting central figure, Richard III has proved an irresistible lure for over 400 years. This indelible interpretation, featuring OBIE and L ucille L ortel Award-winning actor John Douglas Thompson (title role in Othello 2008 & 2009), was conceived by Artistic Director Tony Simotes and directed by Jonathan Croy with assistance from Malcolm Ingram. Richard III runs July 2 through September 5,

The Fall/ Winter schedule for Shakespeare & Company will includeThe Real Inspector Hound , The Annual Fall Gala , As You L ike It , The Fall Festival of Shakespeare , The Santaland Diaries , The Mystery of Irma Vep , Shakespeare and the L anguage that Shaped a World , and rounding out the season , Hamlet (The Company’s New England Tour of Shakespeare) will come home for a limited run.

Mahler is an unseen but fully-present character in Mengelberg and Mahler. He is Mengelberg’s cherished friend, his inspiration, his conscience, and ultimately his spiritual salvation. Mahler’s musicâ€"parts of his 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 5th Symphonies, plus "Wenn dein Mütterlein" from the Kindertotenliederâ€"is a full partner in this production. These musical portions do much more than set the scene: they are essential to Mengelberg’s understanding of his own life.

Some months ago we asked former artistic director, Tina Packer, if Shakespeare & Company is out of the woods? She was guarderdly sanguine. Now the new artistic director, Tony Simotes, has managed to pay down a high interest short term loan, settle a construction law suit and restructure the debt. The prospects look far better comining into a full season.

Shakespeare & Company kicks off its 2010-2011 season May 21 with Shakespeare’s most well known Roman play Julius Caesar , a production fresh off the road after performing to over 50 schools and theatres throughout New England , New York and New Jersey .

Shakespeare & Company issued 50,446 tickets this season, surging past its previous record by some three thousand patron visits. (The figure does not include the approximately 800 people who attended S&Co.'s annual July 4th Celebration and Reading of the Declaration of Independence, an un-ticketed event.) The box office revenue totaled $1.13 million, fewer than three thousand dollars short of S&Co.'s record, set during the 2008-2009 season.

Last year, for the first time, Shakespeare & Company mounted a winter production. The one woman show "Bad Dates" was a hit for Elizabeth Aspenlieder which won her Boston's Norton Award when she the took the show to Lowell. She is now in rehearsal, directed by Tina Packer, as the lead in "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" which opens January 29 and runs through March 21. We dropped by for a rehearsal and to catch up on S&Co.'s ongoing efforts to pay down a $10 million debt.

Obie winner John Douglas Thompson will return this summer to star as "Richard III" at Shakespeare & Company. Tina Packer will direct "The Taster" a new play by Joan Ackerman. And Elizabeth Aspenlieder will star in "A Winter's Tale."

Hilarious Holiday fun for the whole family prevails at Shakespeare & Company with an evening of farce in a concoction Cindy Bell more or less based on the classic fairy tale Cinderella. They are playing it over the top just for laughs. Lots of them.

A near capacity audience braved the first storm of the winter to attend a benefit, solo performance by a Berkshire neighbor, Arlo Guthrie. It was a great evening at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox.

A Berkshire legend, singer songwriter, Arlo Guthrie, will perform a special benefit concert for Shakespeare & Company in Lenox. The performance followed by a dessert reception will occur on December 5. He will perform an acoustic set in the Founders Theatre. Arlo will perform at Symphony Hall in June and with the Pops this summer at Tanglewood.

In a limited run, December 10 through 20, Shakespeare & Company presents family entertainment. The production of Cindy Bella is based on the traditional fairy tale of Cinderella. Irina Brook directs this production created and adapted by Brook and Anna Brownstead.

To quote Winston Churchill during the Battle of Britain "Is this the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning?" In the coming months artistic director Tony Simotes will be charged with getting Shakespeare & Company back on track and out from under a stagering debt of $10 million.

Although Tina Packer is in the midst of a controversial production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" at Boston's Publick Theatre she attended the important press conference of Shakespeare & Company convened to discuss the current fiscal crisis. It was a chance to catch up with Packer and share her insights as founding artistic director of the company.

With Tina Packer out of town, director Tony Simotes has the Shakespeare encampment in Lenox pretty much to himself. After a summer of managerial worries, he is back to directing, having taken several serious Shakespearean actors off the leash. For the next five weeks they will make total fools of themselves in front of hysterical and appreciative audiences in their reworking of a Sherlock Holmes classic.

Here's an advance peek at the wild and wooly romp that takes one of the most popular Sherlock Holmes tales and ruins it—umm, we mean, turns it inside out—stuffing it with endless laughs as it barrels forward at a breakneck pace, all the while daring the audience to hold on tight with both hands.

Easing into the Shoulder Season in the Berkshires, for a limited run, Shakespeare & Company is presenting an encore of two of the three, one woman plays in its Diva Series. Tina packer returns as "Shirley Valentine" and Annette Miller performs "Golda's Balcony." Limited tickets are selling fast.

At the age of 78, Olympia Dukakis could easily retire having earned the title of legendary actress and a mantle full of Oscars, Obies, Gabbys and Golden Globes. Instead the busiest actor of her generation makes a surprising decision - to return to Shakespeare & Company and work with her old friend and favorite student, Tony Simotes.

"White People" by J.T. Rogers is the last of three plays in the series "Life Laid Bare" at Shakespeare & Company. It pales by comparison to the all black cast in John Patrick Shanley's "The Dreamer Examines His Pillow."

In June, Tina Packer turned over the day to day operation of Shakespeare & Company to the new Artistic Director, Tony Simotes. Recently she discussed 32 years at S&Co. as well as plans this fall to perform at the Publick Theatre in Boston and the Mercury Theatre Company in Great Britain. She will return to S&Co. next season as its Designated Hitter.

The team at Shakespeare & Company kicked off their "Life Laid Bare" series of provocative new works with the American premiere of Donald Freed's award winning play Devil's Advocate. The first play of any game is very telling. It's fun to see the players on stage throwing the political footballs around, even if we know the outcome of the game even before entering the theatre.

Come for lunch, stay for tea. Measure for Measure is brilliantly played by the Apprentice Company as part of the Lunchtime Theatre, and more than a snack, it is the main course.

Tina Packer, after 32 years as Founding Dirctor of the Lenox based, Shakespeare & Company has stepped down. It was planned that Tony Simotes, now in his first season as Artistic Director, would be handed the reins of debt free company with a $10 million new facility including a second stage, The Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, and the start on an endowment. Then the economy fell off a cliff.

Last summer John Douglas Thompson received rave reviews, including Ben Brantley in the New York Times, for his performance in "Othello" at Shakespeare & Company. He earned an Obie Award for its Off Broadway production. He returns to Lenox with "Othello" as well as "The Dreamer Examines His Pillow" through September 6. There is a strong possibility he will perform "The Emperor Jones" Off Broadway this season.