Michael Cumpsty Stars in Classic Stage Company's Hamlet Nov. 2 - Dec. 11

Classic Stage Company, under the leadership of Artistic Director Brian Kulick and Executive Director Jessica R. Jenen, will kick off its 38th season with a new production of Hamlet by William Shakespeare starring renowned actor Michael Cumpsty (The Constant Wife, Democracy, Copenhagen) in the title role and directed by Brian Kulick. Hamlet reunites Cumpsty and Kulick, who last collaborated on the New York Shakespeare Festival's acclaimed production of Timon of Athens in Central Park. Hamlet will be performed from November 2 through December 11.

CSC's next mainstage production will be Fragment 174, a new work inspired by Sophocles' lost play The Dolopians, with a text by Obie Award-winning playwright Charles L. Mee (Big Love) and staged by Pavol Liska, the young director who won acclaim last season for his production of Three Sisters performed at Classic Stage Company. Mee and Liska use the only remaining words from Sophocles' play – "In my lair, where I would have the home of a runaway" – as the jumping-off point for their imaginative tale of a rebellious son who is forced by his father to wander the world as an external exile. Fragment 174 will be performed from March 22, 2006 through April 9, 2006.

CSC's third mainstage presentation of the season will be the Target Margin Theater production of Faust, Part 1 and Faust, Part 2, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Douglas Langworthy and directed by David Herskovits. Widely read but rarely seen in its entirety, Herskovits and his company go for broke in this wildly inventive and exhilarating two-part theatrical extravaganza of Goethe's magnum opus. Faust, Part 1 and Faust, Part 2 will be performed from April 21, 2006 through May 21, 2006.

CSC's 2005-2006 season will also include several other exciting theatrical events, outlined below:

THE FIRST LOOK FESTIVAL

The return of CSC's popular one-night-only staged readings of rarely seen classics, performed by notable actors. Past artists have included F. Murray Abraham, Ron Leibman, Francis McDormand, Kate Mulgrew, Mandy Patinkin and John Turturro. This season First Look turns its gaze to the Revenge Tragedies of the Elizabethan Age, during the time of Shakespeare's Hamlet.

November 21, 2005
The Spanish Tragedy
By Thomas Kyd

"Enter the Ghost and with him Revenge." So begins Thomas Kyd's wildly popular play that spawned an entire genre of revenge tragedies. Ghosts, intrigue, betrayal and hot- blooded revenge dominate this masterpiece, which remains one of the most imaginative thrillers of the Elizabethan stage.

November 28, 2005
Antonio's Revenge
By John Marston

The stage is set for a melancholy prince dressed in black, a vengeful ghost, and a murderous usurper. Sound like Shakespeare's Hamlet? Guess again! It's Marston's masterful tragedy which played at the same time as Shakespeare's Hamlet. Join in the fun at guessing who stole from whom.

December 5, 2005
The Roman Actor
By Philip Massinger

Paris, Rome's greatest actor, has it all: money, success, and the emperor's wife as a lover. But when the Emperor learns of his wife's infidelities he devises a play of his own to co-star in with his rival. It is there, on stage, that Paris learns that in the Emperor's theatre the knives and blood are very, very real.

THE YOUNG COMPANY: MOLIERE CYCLE
January 3, 2006 – January 15, 2006

SCAPIN
By Molière
Directed by Niky Wolcz

THE MISANTHROPE
By Molière
Directed by Michael Sexton

The Young Company is a new educational program focused on the development of young actors and young audiences in New York City. Through a collaboration with Columbia University School of the Arts prestigious M.F.A. Acting Program, led by theatre legends Andrei Serban and Kristin Linklater, CSC will present a rotating repertory of two of Moliere's most beloved plays, Scapin and The Misanthrope, featuring M.F.A.student actors. The Young Company's goal is to bridge the gap between the academic and the professional world by showcasing these talented young students in professional productions at CSC. By gearing this work toward young and underserved audiences, we will help enable young artists to inspire young audiences. Last season, John Heilpern of The New York Observer cited Columbia's graduate acting program as possessing "such vitality, discipline and maturity that I was left astonished."

MONDAY NIGHT LEAR
May 1, 8, 15, and 21, 2006

Our popular Monday Night Open Rehearsal series returns with William Shakespeare's King Lear. Join an extraordinary company of seasoned actors and directors as they explore one act each evening for four Monday nights. Become part of the discovery process as you experience different Lears, interpretations and directorial approaches and reconnect with this magisterial work, which reveals more of itself with each encounter.

Now in its 38th Season as one of New York's most exciting Off-Broadway theaters, CLASSIC STAGE COMPANY is the award-winning Off-Broadway theatre committed to re-imagining the classical repertory for a contemporary American audience. CSC presents plays from the past that speak directly to the issues of today. As we return to works of the past, we endeavor to keep a clear eye on the future, particularly in terms of the next generation of artists and audiences. Classic Stage's artists are the best-established and emerging theater practitioners working in this country. Highly respected and widely regarded as a major force in New York and American theater, Classic Stage has been cited repeatedly by all the major Off-Broadway theater awards: Obies, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League and 1999 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Body of Work.

Memberships to Classic Stage Company productions are available at various price levels, including the Masterpass membership, which in addition to prime seats, entitles members to all CSC special series, as well as a prime orchestra seat for the upcoming Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd. For membership and ticket information, call the theater's Box Office at (212) 677-4210, ext. 11, visit the theater in person at 136 East 13th Street, or order online at www.classicstage.org.

For more information on Classic Stage Company (136 East 13th Street) call (212) 677-4210 ext. 11 or visit the theater's website at www.classicstage.org.