TN Shakespeare Co. THE COMEDY OF ERRORS and TWELFTH NIGHT for 17th Season
TSC’s Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor Stage has been renovated to accommodate four new seating configurations for audiences.
By: A.A. Cristi Jul. 31, 2024
Tennessee Shakespeare Company has announced its 17th performance season in Memphis featuring William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night, Bernard Shaw’s Saint Joan, and a double Literary Salon Series that features two creators of revolt: Lady Augusta Gregory as she revives Ireland through its artists, and Shakespeare’s villains as they seek for grace in an Enhanced Salon that returns Dan McCleary to the Tabor Stage.
TSC’s Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor Stage has been renovated to accommodate four new seating configurations for audiences, including a permanent balcony, better sightlines, and increased accessibility.
The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, and both Salons will be presented in a new end-stage format, where the audience is seated entirely on one side of the action. Saint Joan will be played in-the-round, with audiences on four sides of the action. The Children’s Literacy Gala will be presented in a runway/promenade configuration.
Committed to classical arts innovation in the United States, TSC remains the State’s only permanently-based, professional, classical theatre. Acclaimed by the National Endowment for the Arts for its results-based Education and Outreach Program, TSC is committed to artistic excellence, teaching innovation, and social betterment.
TSC believes that the plays of William Shakespeare and classical theatre are for everyone; that education, training, and community outreach are equal colleagues to live performance; that the arts must move closer to the center of every Tennessee child’s formal education; and that the State needs the poetry, collaboration, and healing truths of the world’s finest writers and artists.
Across 16 seasons, TSC has achieved over 700,000 points of contact through 70 productions in 40 community venues; educated 300,000 students in 130 area schools; served the health needs of more than 1,000 Veterans at the Memphis V.A. Medical Center; and brought Shakespeare and creative writing to 500 youths in three Memphis detention centers.
TSC this season brings back its Classical Theatre Apprentice Program for early-career professionals from around the country as they continue their classical training with TSC’s professional teachers, actors, and stage managers for seven months while in residency in Memphis.
“Our country is seeing both a reduction in the number of regional theatres and a reduction in the number of Shakespeare and classical plays offered by them,” said Dan McCleary, TSC’s founder and Producing Artistic Director. “TSC is committed to operational expansion this season that sees our budget grow modestly while deepening our reach in our daily education, outreach, training, and performance programming. Just as importantly, however, is our commitment to how we do it. And that starts and ends with William Shakespeare and other classical creators whom we consider revolutionaries. We need them. Our country needs them. Our psyches need them. Right now. Lest we forget.”
The 2024-25 Performance Season
8th Annual Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series
THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
directed by Dan McCleary
September 27 – October 20
on outdoor stages throughout west Tennessee and indoors at TSC
This 90-minute, madcap romp is one of Shakespeare’s ever-popular adventures for all ages. Mistaken identities (two sets of twins!) and extraordinary misunderstandings could explode into violence, but Shakespeare’s comedies always end with marriage and compassion. This story, modernized from ancient Greek versions, remains the world’s fulfilling enchantment of a rarified family reunion.
Running without intermission, this production features 13 actors, including Michael Khanlarian and Lauren Gunn as the four twins. Bring a chair and picnic; first come/first seated. Comedy of Errors will play indoors on TSC’s Tabor Stage for two performances for half-priced admission off Tabor Stage productions. For these two performances, patrons should call or go online to reserve and purchase seats while they last.
Performance Schedule:
Friday, September 27 at 7:00 pm: Bartlett Performing Arts Center
3663 Appling Road, Bartlett; no reservations required
Saturday, September 28 at 7:00 pm: Tabor Stage (indoors)
TSC; half-price admission charged; reserve seats with TSC’s Box Office
Sunday, September 29 at 3:00 pm: Tabor Stage (indoors)
TSC; half-price admission charged; reserve seats with TSC’s Box Office
Thursday, October 3 at 7:00 pm: Wiseacre Brewery
2783 Broad Avenue, Memphis; no reservations required
Saturday, October 5 at 4:00 pm: Woodlawn
24545 TN-57, LaGrange, TN; no reservations required
Sunday, October 6 at 3:00 pm: Dixon Gallery & Gardens
4339 Park Avenue, Memphis; no reservations required
Friday, October 11 at 7:00 pm: St. George’s Episcopal Church
2425 S. Germantown Rd., Germantown; no reservations required
Saturday, October 12 at 5:00 pm: Tom Lee Park north lawn
Downtown, Huling Avenue entrance; no reservations required
Sunday, October 13 at 4:00 pm: Davies Manor
9336 Davies Plantation Road, Bartlett; no reservations required
Friday, October 18 at 7:00 pm: Overton Square’s Chimes Square Amphitheatre
2101 Madison Avenue, Memphis; no reservations required
Saturday, October 19 at 7:00 pm: Collierville Town Square’s Train Depot
96 N. Center Street, Collierville; no reservations required
Sunday, October 20 at 4:00 pm: Overton Park Shell
1928 Poplar Avenue, Memphis; no reservations required
TWELFTH NIGHT
a holiday tradition
directed by Stephanie Shine
December 6-22
Fridays-Saturdays at 7:30 pm/Sundays at 3:00 pm/Preview is Dec. 6
on the Tabor Stage
‘Tis the season for Shakespeare’s most charming comedy cast in a topsy-turvy world of cross-dressing lovers, yellow cross-garters, and crossed identities. Shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria, Viola has lost her country and beloved twin brother. Disguising herself as Cesario, a boy page, she falls in love with Duke Orsino even as she delivers his affections to the lovely Lady Olivia. Between beautiful songs, high comedy, and delicate poetry, love redeems all.
Enhanced Literary Salon
THE GRACE OF GRACE: SHINING A LIGHT THROUGH SHAKESPEARE’S BROKEN VILLAINS
created and played by Dan McCleary
with Lauren Gunn
January 25 – February 9, 2025
Saturdays at 7:30 pm/Sundays at 3:00 pm
on the Tabor Stage
In a life buffeted by familial loss, religious persecution, censorship, plagues, political upheaval, social violence, and a dark lady, William Shakespeare perhaps felt compelled to create his cast of fully-human “villains.” Why do we still revere them, and what makes them archetypal? McCleary, who has played most of them over 35 years, explores Shakespeare’s men of deformity, abuse, honor, and prejudice – all framed by Shakespeare’s famously too-kind Macbeth, whose inexplicable horror has helped shape our modern psyche. This enhanced Salon will feature full production values on stage.
Literary Salon
Lady Augusta Gregory: REVIVALIST OF A COUNTRY
curated and directed by Stephanie Shine
March 2, 2025 at 3:00 pm
on the Tabor Stage
Co-founder of the Irish Literary Theatre and The Abbey Theatre in Dublin, Lady Gregory is responsible for her country’s literary revival – an awakening that would prove the birth of Ireland’s fight for independence. A friend and supporter of W.B. Yeats, J.M. Synge, Robert Browning, Lord Tennyson, and Henry James, Lady Gregory was an inspired dramatist, poet, and correspondent worthy of a cocktail-infused Salon featuring her select writings with conversation to follow.
SAINT JOAN
by G. Bernard Shaw
directed by Stephanie Shine
April 4-19, 2025
Fridays-Saturdays at 7:30 pm/Sundays at 3:00 pm/Saturday, April 19 at 3:00 pm/Preview is April 4
on the Tabor Stage
In six scenes and with six actors, Shaw chronicles the heroism of French army leader Joan of Arc who, despite leading men to victory over the English, was sold to those she defeated to be burned at the stake in 1431 and was later convicted of heresy for professing to speak directly to God. Inspired by England’s 1920 overturning of that verdict, and Joan’s subsequent canonization, Shaw creates his masterwork of spiritual, political, and human inquiry – capped by an exhilarating Epilogue that brings its history current to us.
THE CHILDREN’S LITERACY GALA
Saturday, May 3, 2025 at 6:00 pm
on the Tabor Stage
The annual Gala performance will be ten months in the making and designed to raise over $200,000 to support this year’s expansive Engagement efforts in the Memphis V.A. Hospital, Juvenile Justice system, and all Shelby County area schools. Enjoy a sumptuous dinner buffet, open bars, fun auctions, a one-time-only performance, and the third annual Teacher of the Year Award (selected from teachers within Shelby County who activate Shakespeare’s stories in their classrooms).
EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Funded in part by National Endowment for the Arts and Arts Midwest, Tennessee Arts Commission, International Paper, and TSC’s Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund as well as the Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Fund.
The Romeo and Juliet Project: The only program of its kind in the nation, in which our resident teacher-artists help 9th-graders understand that violence is not the answer to life’s complexities.
The Macbeth Initiative: This singular program for 12th-graders uses the great tragedy to explore personal ethical issues such as ambition and power.
Winter/Summer Shakespeare Camps
Elementary/Middle/High School Playshops and Residencies
OUTREACH PROGRAMS
Funded in part by FedEx Corporation, Tennessee Arts Commission, AutoZone, National Endowment for the Arts, the City of Memphis, and Mid-America Arts Alliance.
Juvenile Justice Program: inspiring adolescents’ life-changes upon release from detainment through Shakespeare and our Poetic Justice Summer Camp. One of the few such programs in the nation.
Feast of Crispian-South: TSC is the only theatre in the nation with a program joined officially with the V.A. Medical Center to prepare our heroes in the PTSD and chemical dependency wards to re-enter the world with health and all they deserve. Thanks to this season’s sponsors, TSC will launch weekly nighttime programming at the theatre for the Shelby County Veteran population at large.
TRAINING PROGRAMS
School Educator Training
Second Annual Classical Theatre Apprentice Program: Six early-career actors/stage managers/teachers drawn from around the country receive seven months of daily training while applying that learning in a practical theatre and education schedule.
Purchase tickets online at www.tnshakespeare.org or by calling (901) 759-0604. Open Tuesday-Friday from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm, and one hour prior to curtain. TSC is located at 7950 Trinity Road, Memphis, TN 38018-6297.
The Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series production of The Comedy of Errors is free of charge, does not require reservations/tickets, and performs outdoors in multiple off-site venues. Two added performances of The Comedy of Errors will play inside on TSC’s Tabor Stage for half-off admission at $22 (Students $10/Seniors $15).
Twelfth Night and Saint Joan Preview performance tickets are $22. All other performances are $44 (Students $24/Seniors $39). Fridays for Twelfth Night and Saint Joan are FREE WILL KIDS' NIGHTS: up to 4 children 17 years and younger may attend for free when accompanied by at least one, full-price-paying Adult guardian; while seats last. Free Will Kids' Night tickets must be purchased through the Box Office either via phone at (901) 759-0604 or in-person.
Literary Salon: Lady Augusta Gregory tickets are $29 (Students $22/Seniors $26).
Enhanced Literary Salon: Grace of Grace tickets are $35 (Students $22/Seniors $29).
The Children’s Literacy Gala single tickets are $150, with 8-ticket Platinum/6-ticket Gold/4-ticket Silver Table Sponsorships available with tiered benefits. Early Bird single tickets at $125 are available through April 1, 2025. Please contact Stephanie Shine for details at (901) 759-0604.
No refunds/exchanges. House opens 30 minutes prior to curtain. Credit Card charges require a $1.50 per-ticket fee. Casts and schedules subject to change with notice. Free parking and covered drop-off are available at TSC
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