Austin Shakespeare Unveils 24-25 Season Featuring US Premieres & More

Austin Shakespeare’s 24-25 season will feature US premieres and sweeping drama, including a re-imagining of Jane Eyre, an original take on an ancient classic, Mahabharata Tales, and a return to Zilker Hillside Theatre with Julius Caesar. A staged reading of Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt, two Parker Jazz Club cabaret-style performances and a Young Shakespeare production of Cymbeline round out the season.
 
“We are excited to offer Austin audiences an unpredictable journey through this season of new visions of amazing tales,” said Austin Shakespeare Artistic Director Ann Ciccolella. “Actors, designers, musicians and choreographers will collaborate on a rough and tumble look at Jane Eyre, a gripping tale side by side with profound philosophy in Mahabharata Tales as well as Shakespeare at his best examining relationships and power in Julius Caesar.”
 
Austin Shakespeare’s Parker Jazz Club fundraisers have become a tradition, and this year’s season will feature Songs of Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along on September 29, and Songs from She Loves Me on January 12, each for one Sunday only. “Merrily” will star Jill Blackwood Holmes.
 
At the Long Center’s Rollins Theatre in November, Austin Shakespeare will be the first theater company in the United States to produce a new Jane Eyre devised by the Old Vic Bristol and National Theatre of Great Britain.  “This “Jane” is strong, feisty, and spunky,” Ciccolella said. “The staging will be intriguingly modern and imagistic, calling on the audience’s theatrical imagination.”
 
Mahabharata Tales is a new telling of the heroic story of ancient India developed by Ciccolella. Austin actors, musicians and dancers will tell the tales – in an abbreviated version of the epic play -- at the Long Center’s Rollins Theatre for two weekends, February 14-23, 2025.
 
For the first time since 2010, Austin Shakespeare will fill the auditorium of Shalom Austin (Dell Jewish Community Center) with a costumed staged reading of Tom Stoppard’s recent Leopoldstadt. The epic story will feature more than 30 actors, on Saturday, March 22, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 23, at 3 p.m.
 
Austin Shakespeare will return to the Zilker Hillside Theatre in May. “The Free Shakespeare in the Park show will examine Shakespeare’s look at power in Julius Caesar with a contemporary slant of women in traditionally male roles,” Ciccolella said.
 
In June, Young Shakespeare will present Shakespeare’s romance Cymbeline as a dark fairy tale at the Curtain Theatre. Young actors ages 13-19 will have the privilege of performing in the fantastic setting of The Curtain Theatre, a replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Teens get a full rehearsal month with professional designers and directors culminating in seven performances over two weekends.
 

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