FOLGER THEATRE ANNOUNCES 2013/14 SEASON FILLED WITH SHAKESPEARE PLAYS
Shakespeare’s ROMEO AND JULIET
Helen-Hayes Award winner Aaron Posner directs the most famous story of “star-crossed” love.
Shakespeare’s RICHARD III
Robert Richmond, the director behind this season’s HENRY V, helms this play about a king determined to gain the throne.
Folger Theatre presents New York’s much lauded Fiasco Theater in THE TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.
Shakespeare’s dizzying romantic comedy strained by wandering affections and a special limited season add-on! CYMBELINE. Hailed by New York magazine as one of the Top 10 theatrical productions of the year!
Folger Theatre’s Artistic Producer Janet Alexander Griffin today announced the season for 2013/14. Building on its reputation for productions called “breathtakingly original” by The Washington Post, the theater will mount a full season of William Shakespeare, in honor of the author’s 450th birthday anniversary year.
The season begins with the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Helen Hayes Award winner Aaron Posner (The Taming of the Shrew and Cyrano at the Folger). The Machiavellian rise to power in Richard III is staged by Robert Richmond (Henry V, Othello, and Henry VIII).
The Folger then welcomes New York’s Fiasco Theater to present the comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona. In a special limited engagement, the Fiasco Theater will also present the DC premiere of their acclaimed production of Cymbeline, which The New Yorker declared to be “a playful and inspired work of art.”
Subscriptions and individual tickets are now on sale. Click here, or call the Folger Box Office at (202) 544-7077.
FOLGER THEATRE’S 2013/14 SEASON
Romeo and Juliet
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Aaron Posner
October 15 – December 1, 2013
Richard III
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Robert Richmond
January 28, 2014 – March 9, 2014
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
By William Shakespeare
From Fiasco Theater Company in New York
April 17, 2014 – May 25, 2014
CYMBELINE
From Fiasco Theater Company in New York
Directed by Fiasco Theater Co-Artistic Directors Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld
Special Engagement of the Critically Hailed Production!
Beginning May 28, 2014
Romeo and Juliet
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Aaron Posner
October 15 – December 1, 2013
The perfect poetry of Shakespeare’s tragedy reveals the heart-breaking loss of “star-crossed” love. Three-time Helen Hayes award-winning director, Aaron Posner leads an outstanding ensemble, including Erin Weaver (Arcadia and Comedy of Errors) as Juliet, Michael Goldsmith (Clybourne Park in London’s West End) as Romeo, and Eric Hissom (Arcadia, Macbeth, and Cyrano) as Friar Lawrence, into the heart of this powerful, provocative play.
Richard III
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Robert Richmond
January 28 – March 9, 2014
Exploring Shakespeare’s portrait of maniacal ambition and digging into aspects of the truth about this king’s real nature, Robert Richmond returns to the Folger to mount the celebrated history play. Richmond, who masterfully staged Folger’s recent Henry V as well as Henry VIII, will once again be working with the creative design team with whom he has collaborated so beautifully.
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
By William Shakespeare
April 17 – May 25, 2014
New York’s inventive Fiasco Theater has established its reputation for bringing to the stage Shakespeare’s most whimsical, timeless tales. Here the Folger will debut Fiasco’s production of this dizzying romantic adventure strained by wandering affections. This early Shakespeare comedy is filled with bandits, mistaken identity, and the “sourest-natured” dog Crab.
Cymbeline
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Noah Brody and Ben Steinfeld
Very Limited Engagement – Beginning May 28, 2014
This production of one of Shakespeare’s last plays was voted one of the top 10 theatrical productions of 2011 by New York magazine and winner of the 2012 Off- Broadway Award for “Best Revival.” Fiasco’s music-filled rendering of another of Shakespeare’s most fanciful tales is performed with just six spirited actors, who “let the comedy, poignancy and unlikely magic of Cymbeline surface gently and naturally.” (The New York Times)
Tickets & Information:
Tickets/Information here, or call (202) 544-7077.
Subscriptions begin at $99. Individual tickets are $30 – $75.
Performances are held at Folger Theatre, located at 201 East Capitol Street, SE, in Washington, DC 20003. The nearest metro stations are Capitol South (blue/orange lines, 4 blocks) and Union Station (red line, 7 blocks). Street parking is available in the surrounding Capitol Hill neighborhood.
About Folger Theatre and Folger Shakespeare Library:
Folger Theatre is the centerpiece of Folger Shakespeare Library’s programs for the public and is recognized for dynamic performances in the 250-seat Elizabethan-styled theatre, specializing in innovative stagings of works by Shakespeare, other classical work, and new plays inspired by these traditions. Since 1991, Folger Theatre has been honored by the Helen Hayes Awards with 18 awards and 116 nominations for excellence in acting, direction, design, and production—including the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play in 2011 for Hamlet (a year in which all three of Folger’s theatrical productions were nominated in that category). In September 2012, Folger Theatre brought from London Shakespeare’s Globe’s Hamlet for the company’s first Washington appearance. Janet Alexander Griffin is the Artistic Producer of Folger Theatre and Director of Public Programs which includes the Folger’s music and literary series.
Folger Shakespeare Library is a renowned center for scholarship, learning, culture, and the arts. Home to the world’s largest Shakespeare collection and a primary repository for research material from the early modern period (1500-1750), Folger Shakespeare Library is an internationally recognized research library offering advanced scholarly programs in the humanities; a national leader in how Shakespeare is taught in grades K-12; and an award-winning producer of cultural and arts programs—theatre, music, poetry, exhibits, lectures, and family programs. A gift to the American people from industrialist Henry Clay Folger, Folger Shakespeare Library—located one block east of the U.S. Capitol—opened in 1932 and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Learn more here.
