Shakespeare's Globe Closes U.S. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST Tour 12/23

Following their heralded tour of "Measure for Measure" in 2005, the venerable Shakespeare's Globe Theatre of London returns to the United States from October 20th through December 23rd with the triumphant production of "Love's Labour's Lost", directed by Shakespeare's Globe Artistic Director, Dominic Dromgoole. This is the first American tour under Mr. Dromgoole's stewardship.

In "Love's Labour's Lost" self-denial is in fashion at the court of Navarre where the young King and three of his courtiers solemnly forswear all pleasures in favour of serious study. But The Princess of France and her all-too-lovely entourage have other ideas and it isn't long before young love, with its glad eyes, hesitations and embarrassments, has broken every self-imposed rule of the all-male ‘academe'.

Shakespeare's boisterous send-up of all those who try to turn their back on life, is a festive parade of every weapon in the youthful playwright's comic arsenal: from excruciating cross-purposes and impersonations, to drunkenness, bust-ups and pratfalls. Even more, it is a joyful banquet of language, groaning with puns, rhymes, bizarre syntax, grotesque coinages and parodies.

This production, the hit of the Globe's 2007 season, will return to Shakespeare's Globe from September 25 - October 10 before embarking on its tour of the United States.

Returning to their leading-roles in the 2007 production are Michelle Terry as The Princess of France and Trystan Gravelle as Berowne, along with Seroca Davis, Christopher Godwin, William Mannering, Rhiannon Oliver and Andrew Vincent. Joining them in the Globe company are Jade Anouka, Phil Cumbus, Jack Farthing, Patrick Godfrey, Fergal McElherron, Thomasin Rand, Paul Ready, Siân Robins-Grace and Tom Stuart.

"Love's Labour's Lost" playing in seven venues across the country, will be performed at Michael Schimmel Center at Pace University in New York from December 9 - 23.

Following performances in London, ‘Love's Labour's Lost" begins its US Tour at the Power Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan with performances from October 20 - 25, continues at the Annenberg Center, Philadelphia from October 27 - 31, travels to the Zellerbach Hall in Berkeley, CA, where it will be presented from November 4 - 8. The tour then moves to the Mondavi Center in Davis, CA on November 11, followed by engagements at UC Santa Barbara, November 13-15 and the Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica, CA, November 19- 29. Additionally, the production travels to MiFA in Holyoke, MA December 3- 5.

Directed by Dominic Dromgoole, this production has designs by Jonathan Fensom and music by Claire van Kampen. "Love's Labour's Lost" will employ Renaissance staging, costume and music.

Dominic Dromgoole is the Artistic Director of Shakespeare's Globe. His previous work at the Globe includes King Lear, Love's Labour's Lost, Coriolanus and Antony and Cleopatra. This season he is also directing Romeo and Juliet and A New World: A Life of Thomas Paine by Trevor Griffiths. He was Artistic Director of the Oxford Stage Company (1999-2005) and the Bush Theatre (1990-1996), and Director of New Plays for the Peter Hall Company (1996/7). He has also directed at the Tricycle Theatre, in the West End, and in America and Romania. Dominic has written two books, The Full Room (2001) and Will & Me (2006).

Jonathan Fensom most recently worked at Stratford Shakespeare Festival as the designer of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Jonathan was nominated for a Tony Award for his set design for Journey's End in 2007 and was associate designer on Disney's The Lion King, which premièred at the New Amsterdam Theatre on Broadway and has subsequently opened worldwide. He has designed more than 50 productions worldwide, from Shakespeare to ballet to modern classics. Other recent productions include King Lear and Love's Labour's Lost at Shakespeare's Globe; Swan Lake for San Francisco Ballet; The Faith Healer, Journey's End, The American Plan and Pygmalion in New York; Rain Man, Some Girls, Twelfth Night and Crown Matrimonial in the West End; The Homecoming and Big White Fog at The Almeida Theatre; Happy Now?, The Mentalists and Burn/Citizenship/Chatroom at the National Theatre; Talking to Terrorists and The Sugar Syndrome at The Royal Court Theatre; and National Anthems at the Old Vic.

Claire van Kampen trained at the Royal College of music, specialising in the performance of contemporary music, and studying composition with Dr. Ruth Gipps. In 1986 she joined the RSC and the Royal National Theatre, becoming the first female musical director with both companies. Her international career as composer, performer, writer and broadcaster has produced scores for many theatre productions, television and film. In 1990 she co-founded the theatre company Phoebus Cart with Mark Rylance. Their production of Shakespeare's The Tempest was performed in the foundations of the Globe in 1991. As Director of theatre Music during its founding ten years, Claire was involved in creating the music for over 30 Globe productions between 1997 and 2006. Recent Globe productions include: Love's Labour's Lost (2007), King Lear (2008) and Helen (2009). Awards include; the Vero Nihil Verius Award for Distinguished Achievement in the Arts by Concordia University (Oregon, USA), and the 2007 Sam Wanamaker Award (with Mark Rylance and Jenny Tiramani for their ‘Original Practices' productions at the Globe.) Recent work includes: Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme (Hampstead Theatre); Bash (West End); Boeing-Boeing (West End and Broadway, NY); I Am Shakespeare (Chichester Festival Theatre); Peer Gynt (Guthrie Theater, Minneapolis); Romeo and Juliet (Middle Temple Hall festival). Film: Nocturne (Ind.2009). As a writer, Claire is creating a new play about the castrato Farinelli, and also writing both book and music for Grand Central, a musical to be produced in New York.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was founded by the late and pioneering American actor/director Sam Wanamaker, who persevered for nearly 30 years to rebuild a replica of the Globe near its original site in London. Since the Globe's reopening by Her Majesty the Queen in 1997, the theatre has fulfilled its vision of recreating for audiences the infectious energy and spontaneity of Shakespeare plays as they were originally presented in an urban amphitheater.