'A Winter's Tale' & 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in repertoire at Theatre Row

Shakespeare NYC presents A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Winter's Tale, both directed by Beverly Bullock, in repertoire at Theatre Row's Lion Theatre from the 18 Mar - 3 Apr 2005

The dark and rarely-performed dramaThe Winter's Tale, illuminates the fine line between love and hate. Leontes, King of Sicilla and a man of terrible jealousy, believes his wife Hermione is having an affair with his close friend Polixenes, the King of Bohemia. In a rage, Leontes orders him put to death. But thanks to a warning, by the Lord Camillo, Polixenes is able to escape. Leontes instead exacts his revenge on Hermione and her newborn daughter. 16 years later, events conspire to bring the surviving principals together again, but is it too late to heal old wounds and prevent the dooming of the next generation?

One the last plays Shakespeare wrote, The Winter's Tale falls into what is called the Romance category. Where love has the chance (but not the guarantee) of triumphing over tragedy and where redemption is obtainable for even the most misguided. This is also the play containing that most famous of stage directions: "Exit, pursued by a bear". The play will be done in a classic setting, with Grecian dress.

The cast of The Winter's Tale features David Blatt, Carrie-Ann Brown, Lisa Came, Jon Dean, Geoffrey Dawe, Sri Gordon, Kristen Hammer, Peter Herrick, Gretchen Howe, Tyler Ashby Jones, Jonathan J. Lidz, Katherine Kelly Lidz, Patricia McNamara, Matt Mercer, John Montague, Jeff Riebe, Benjamin Rishworth, Nicholas Stannard, Kaleb Szabo, Kristen Walsh and Hannah Wolfe.

Things take a turn for the brighter with A Midsummer Night's Dream, one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies. As the play begins, Hermia and her true love Lysander are forced to flee the city of Athens to escape Hermia's arranged marriage to Demetrius. However, the couple is pursued by the spurned lover, along with Helena, Demetrius' old flame, who still carries a torch for him. (The marriage has been ordered by Theseus, the ruler of the city, who is in the process of getting ready for his own nuptials.)

This star-crossed foursome enters a nearby forest where they become unwittingly involved in a plot hatched by Oberon, the King of the Fairies. Oberon has been having some troubles with his Queen, Titania, and her wandering eye, and he decides to use magic to help her realize the error of her ways. Plans go awry when Oberon's servant Puck makes a crucial error in judgment, leading to a string of misunderstandings and miscast spells that threatens most everyone's happiness - not to mention setting the stage for one of the few "cat fights" in the Shakespeare cannon.

A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's earlier works and one of the few of the period to be an entirely original story - with little, if any, material drawn from already existing sources. Showcasing the worlds of both the real and the magical allowing themes of love and understanding to play out in many different forms. The play will be performed in modern dress but remain in the tradition Grecian setting.

The cast of A Midsummer Night's Dream features: David Blatt, Carrie-Ann Brown, Geoffrey Dawe, Jon Dean, Sri Gordon, Kristen Hammer, Catherine Hennessey, Peter Herrick, Gretchen Howe, Tyler Ashby Jones, Jonathan J. Lidz, Katherine Kelly Lidz, Patricia McNamara, Matt Mercer, John Montgomery, Jeff Riebe, Benjamin Rishworth, Joanie Schumacher, Nicholas Stannard, Kaleb Szabo, Lisa Came and Hannah Wolfe.

Beverly Bullock has directed and designed costumes and sets for classical and modern theatre, opera, operetta and musicals with New York and regional performing companies. Miss Bullock also founded and was Artistic Director of Shakespeare at Love Creek (SaLC), a division of Love Creek Productions. She directed and designed 10 Shakespeare plays for SaLC over a four-year period, including the OOBR Award-winning "Much Ado About Nothing".

ShakespeareNYC is a new theatre company dedicated to performing the plays of William Shakespeare.