AS YOU LIKE IT, ROMEO & JULIET and More Set for TAM's 2014 Season

The British are coming to Monmouth for Theater at Monmouth's 45th season. The British Invasion, running from June 28 through September 28, 2014, features a line-up of plays from England's greatest playwrights.

In celebration of Shakespeare's 450th and TAM's 45th, the Summer Repertory will include William Shakespeare's As You Like It and Romeo & Juliet; Oscar Wilde's A Woman of No Importance; and Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw. Opening June 28, the Family Show is a world premiere adaptation of Andrew Lang's Tales from the Blue Fairy Book. The Fall Musical, opening September 18, is The Sorcerer, the second production in a three-year commitment to Gilbert & Sullivan. Since its founding in 1970, TAM has produced more than one hundred of Shakespeare's works and many other British classics both during the Summer Repertory Season and throughout Maine.

SUMMER REPERTORY SEASON: Performances take place in Cumston Hall, a 250-seat Victorian opera house designed by Harry Cochrane. Since its founding the Theater has rehearsed and performed in rotating repertory, inviting audiences to see the actors in different roles in four different shows in one weekend. Each of this season's six productions features newcomers as well as TAM favorites including Mark S. Cartier, Janis Stevens, and Bill Van Horn.

As You Like It | July 10 - August 22
by William Shakespeare | directed by Catherine Weidner
When Rosalind and Orlando are banished from the court by the usurping duke, they flee for their lives into the wild. It isn't long before the lovers find each other and act out a bizarre ritual courtship that ends, as all good comedies do, with everyone paired up two-by-two.

Catherine Weidner is a director, actor, and chair of the Department of Theatre Arts at Ithaca College. Recent directing includes: Jane Austen's Emma for Nebraska Repertory Theatre; Taming of the Shrew, Titus Andronicus, and Merry Wives of Windsor for Illinois Shakespeare Festival; Two Gentlemen of Verona for Theatre at Monmouth, and a one-man Henry V in Austin, Texas for Rude Mechanicals. She has worked at The Guthrie Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune, La Jolla Playhouse, and Bread & Puppet. From 2007- 2013 she taught Classical Acting and Heightened Text at The Theatre School at DePaul University.

A Woman of No Importance | July 17 - August 23
by Oscar Wilde | directed by Will Rhys
In this dark comedy of serial seducers, moralizing monogamists, secret pasts, and simmering heartbreak, which will the idealistic George Arbuthnot choose-social advancement or loyalty of the heart? Surely the basis for Downton Abbey, Wilde's deliciously witty satire lays bare the moral contradictions of Victorian England.

Will Rhys was artistic director at The Cleveland Play House where he directed over 25 productions including plays by: Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet); Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities); Sam Shepherd (Buried Child); and Ferenc Molnár (The Guardsman). Regional credits include The Elocution of Benjamin Franklin at Milwaukee Repertory Theatre; and Macbeth, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Is He Dead? at Theater at Monmouth. Mr. Rhys is a founding member of The National Theatre of the Deaf and served as Artistic Director from 1992 to 2000.

Romeo & Juliet | July 24 - August 24
by William Shakespeare | directed by Dawn McAndrews
In a world consumed by self-interest and divided by hatred and mistrust, Shakespeare's impetuous young lovers defy family, friends, and society to be together. With no one to turn to but each other, Romeo and Juliet provoke both fate and fickle fortune in their quest for pure and passionate love.

Producing Artistic Director Dawn McAndrews directs Romeo & Juliet in her fifth season with TAM.

Dawn has worked as a director, producer, and educator at theatres across the country including Shakespeare Theatre Company, Steppenwolf Theatre, Arena Stage, Portland Stage Company, and Shakespeare Festival St. Louis. Directing credits include The Language Archive (Public Theatre), The Glass Menagerie and Three Days of Rain (1st Stage) Sarah Ruhl's Eurydice (The Orange Girls) and Timberlake Wertenbaker's Antigone (Saint Louis University). TAM credits include The Mousetrap, On the Twentieth Century, Romeo & Juliet, Henry IV Part 1, Of Thee I Sing, Hamlet, The Year of Magical Thinking, and This Wonderful Life.

What the Butler Saw | July 31 - August 23
by Joe Orton | directed by Brian P. Allen
When a psychiatrist invents a series of outrageous lies to cover up his attempts to seduce his young secretary, all manner of mayhem breaks out in the ward. Clothes are discarded, sensibilities skewered, and political correctness flouted in Orton's risqué and ferociously playful farce.

Brian P. Allen is the co-founder and artistic director of Good Theater, a professional company in Portland (www.goodtheater.com) where he has directed more than 40 productions. Recent favorites: Clybourne Park, The Grand Manner, Becky's New Car, The Outgoing Tide, Good People, Striking 12, Death by Design, August Osage County, Next Fall, and Little Me. He has appeared in several Good Theater productions including Ancestral Voices.

FAMILY SHOW: Each summer, TAM presents a play for children of all ages adapted from classic literature.

Tales from the Blue Fairy Book | June 28 - August 21
adapted by Dawn McAndrews from the collection by Andrew Lang | directed by Luke Bartholomew
Lang's Blue Fairy Book bursts with classic tales from around the globe, including East of the Sun West of the Moon, The Bronze Ring, The White Cat, The Stars in the Sky, and more. From princesses to fairies, kings to dwarfs, there's a magical happily ever after for both girls and boys.

FALL MUSICAL: The Fall Musical features talented voices and musicians from Maine and professional actors from away.

The Sorcerer | September 18-28
music by Arthur Sullivan, libretto by W.S. Gilbert | directed by Bill Van Horn
What happens when a magically brewed cup o'tea intoxicates unsuspecting residents of an entire community? Alexis, a young man obsessed with the idea of love leveling all social distinctions, engages J. W. Wells & Co., Family Sorcerers, to find out. When the potion causes everyone in the village to fall in love with the first person they see-the results are mystical mayhem.

Associate Artistic Director Bill Van Horn returns for his thirteenth season to direct this comic gem from G&S. Van Horn also frequently acts, directs, and writes for the acclaimed Walnut Street Theater. In 2013, he directed TAM's Patience and appeared as Citizen in The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Professor Willard/Warren in Our Town, and Gremio in The Taming of the Shrew.

SPECIAL EVENTS

15th Annual Black Fly Follies | July 5 at 7:30 p.m.
Theater at Monmouth's annual variety show returns featuring the talents of our summer company. Black Fly Follies goes British Music Hall with songs, comic routines, and variety acts popular in England during the turn of the 20th century.

The Making of A Hard Day's Night with Mark S. Cartier | August 7 at 7:30 p.m.
As Beatlemania blossomed in Britain, United Artists offered the Beatles the chance to star in their own rock 'n' roll film. Cartier traces how the group conquered America, unleashed the British Invasion, hosted their own television special, and launched their first world tour-all while simultaneously helping to create what Andrew Sarris of the Village Voice calls "the Citizen Kane of juke box movies."

Point Last Seen with Odelle Bowman | August 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Hannah Nyala, search and rescue tracker, is so attuned to nature's messages that she can read the history of a footprint and the secrets of desert sand. Adapted from the memoir of the same name, Hannah escapes an abusive marriage by teaching herself the skills of tracking in the Mojave Desert.

Legends: The Music of Judy Garland with Kelly Caufield | August 21 at 7:30 p.m.
An engaging evening featuring many of Judy Garland's most well-known songs and few surprises. Highlights include beloved hits from her movies, the Gershwin recordings, Broadway and cabaret standards, and more. Directed and co-written by Brian P. Allen. Music direction by Victoria Stubbs.

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