Chesapeake Shakespeare Company Presents CYMBELINE

This February and March, audiences have the unique opportunity to see Shakespeare's romantic adventure, Cymbeline, in a warm and intimate format. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Maryland's premier professional classics stage company, will present the play at historic Oliver's Carriage House in Columbia, Maryland.

CSC Artistic Director Ian Gallanar directs this piece with an emphasis on the intimate and the immediate. Borrowing innovative performance techniques from Shakespeare's Globe's former Associate Director Tim Carroll, Gallanar has cast each actor in two separate roles. True to the company's mission to enrich the role of the audience, patrons will "cast" the show each night and select which actor will portray which role. Audience becomes alchemist as the chemistry of the actors shifts nightly. Gallanar hopes that the unpredictability of each evening's cast will lead to greater spontaneity, energy and focus for both the cast and the audience.

The play, one of Shakespeare's last, depicts the court of pre-Christian British King Cymbeline. Situated among the backdrop of a Roman invasion of the island, Cymbeline is chock full of familiar Shakespearean elements-outcast noblemen, lost sons, mistaken identities, duplicitous seductions, deadly potions, gender confusion, a king blind to treachery, and a cad turned instantly heroic. This action-packed journey of twists and turns ends as one of Shakespeare's most redemptive plays.

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company has a solid reputation for creating site-specific performances and non-traditional staging. Experiencing a play outside of traditional theatre spaces intensifies the audience experience as the natural ambience of the environment is woven into the action of the play. Oliver's Carriage House, which was built in 1830 with stone hearth and exposed beams, provides an authentically rustic and romantic setting for the eloquent language and fairy-tale setting of Shakespeare's Cymbeline.

Cast members of this challenging production include CSC Company Members Greg Burgess, Frank B. Moorman, Ty Hallmark, Lesley Malin, Jill Giles, Jenny Leopold, BranDon Mitchell, and James Jager. Other cast members include Jessica Shearer-Wilson, Victoria Reinsel, Doug Krehbel, Grant Lloyd, Theo Hadjimichael, Robby Rose, Steven Hoochuk and JulIan Martinez.

Tickets for Cymbeline can be purchased online at www.chesapeakeshakespeare.com, by calling 866.811.4111 or immediately prior to the performance at the box office. Please note that due to limited capacity, patrons are encouraged to purchase their tickets in advance. Groups of 10 or more, please call 410.313.8874. For general information, call the CSC offices at 410.313.8874.

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