Actors' Shakespeare Project Announces 15th Season

Actors' Shakespeare Project (ASP) today announces its season line-up for 2018-19. For its 15th season-the first programmed by Artistic Director Christopher V. Edwards-ASP continues to build on a legacy of diversity and reputation for productions that resonate with heightened language and theatrical inventiveness. For more information on the season and "early bird subscriptions," visit actorsshakespeareproject.org.

"I am excited to share my first complete season conceived as ASP's Artistic Director," says Edwards. "To date, ASP has emphasized bringing classical theatre in captivating ways to neighborhoods and venues across Boston-the majority by our namesake playwright, William Shakespeare. Celebrating 15 seasons as a company offers a moment to 'turn a page' ourselves, to explore new voices, themes, collaborators, and audiences, to remain one of Greater Boston's most respected theatre companies."

By the numbers, the ASP season includes four world or regional premieres; three beloved classics reimagined in bold new ways; two co-productions to be staged in collaboration with partners including The Lyric Stage Company of Boston and Vermont's Dorset Theatre Festival; and ASP's first-ever repertory cycle of a premiere Shakespearean and non-Shakespearean work.

MACBETH BY William Shakespeare- WORLD PREMIERE
September 26 - November 11, 2018-in rotating repertoire with EQUIVOCATION
Translation by Migdalia Cruz. Written for the Hitz Shakespeare Translation Project
as part of the "Play On!" Project of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Macbeth, a noble Scottish lord, is shown a pathway to power and the throne by supernatural beings. His bloody ambition and ruthless wife spur him on with complete and utter abandon to make the prophecy a reality. But everything, especially power, comes at a cost. Shakespeare's eerie and thrilling tragedy explores unchecked thirst for control, tyranny and its consequences.

EQUIVOCATION BY Bill Cain- REGIONAL PREMIERE
October 9 - November 11, 2018--in rotating repertoire with MACBETH

It is England,1605, and a terrorist plot to assassinate the King of England, James I, and blow up Parliament with barrels of gunpowder has been foiled. Prime Minister Robert Cecil commissions William Shakespeare to write a lasting history of the failed plot. King James wants a play and he wants witches. As Shakespeare wrestles with the dilemma of being a propagandist playwright in service to the Crown, his company of fellow actors explore the new play and find the story might just be a political cover. Do the actors speak truth to power, the King, and Cecil, and risk spending their lives in prison, or worse, losing their heads?

NAT TURNER IN JERUSALEM BY Nathan Alan Davis REGIONAL PREMIERE
January 30 - February 24, 2019

Nat Turner led a slave revolt that shocked the country in August of 1831. The evening before Turner is scheduled to be executed, he and attorney Thomas R. Gray, the recorder of his confessions, confront what has passed and what the future may hold. Full of rich imagery, this politically timely story explores morality, freedom, spirituality, and one man's convictions.

TWELFTH NIGHT BY William Shakespeare
In collaboration with the Lyric Stage Company of Boston
March 29 - April 28, 2019

Twelfth Night is a tale of unrequited love - hilarious and heartbreaking. Twins are separated in a shipwreck and forced to fend for themselves in a strange land. The first twin, Viola, falls in love with Orsino, who dotes on OIivia, who falls for Viola but is idolized by Malvolio. Enter Sebastian, the spitting image of his twin sister... is it possible for this to all end well? Well, it IS a comedy!

PRIDE AND PREJUDICE BY Kate Hamill Boston Premiere
Adapted from the novel by Jane Austen
June 5 - 30, 2019

Not your run of the mill Jane Austen dramatization, Kate Hamill's adaptation abandons the drawing room for a comic playground of sexually repressed characters skirmishing for their own romantic existences. The Bennet sisters, including passionate yet judgmental Lizzy and shy yet sensible Jane, have been raised by their overbearing mother with one purpose-find a man (preferably wealthy) before it's too late. When a bachelor takes up residence in a nearby mansion, the Bennets pulsate with the possibilities. Jane meets kind and handsome Bingley and sparks fly, but when Lizzy meets reserved yet proud Darcy, things begin to fall apart. Will these iconic characters find bliss or will their lack of social and economic capital leave them all pining?

About Actors' Shakespeare Project (ASP)

Actors' Shakespeare Project is an award-winning professional theater company with a Resident Acting Company and extensive education, youth and community programs. ASP performs and works in found spaces, schools, theaters and neighborhoods to present and explore the robust language, resonant stories, and deeply human characters in Shakespeare's plays and in works by other great playwrights. Our work is ensemble-based and focused on intimacy, storytelling, language, relationships, voice, risk and artistry within and throughout the Boston area. For more information visit actorsshakespeareproject.org.

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