Michael McDonald, Bob Phillips and More Among Directors, Designers for 2013 PA Shakespeare Festival

From a manor house outside of London to the halls of power in Vienna to the vast plains of Oklahoma, designs for the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival's 22nd season reflect the diversity of the programming: Shakespeare's Measure for Measure and King Henry VIII, Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest, Patrick Barlow's The 39 Steps and Rodgers and Hammerstein's legendary musical, Oklahoma!

"More than 30 directors and designers will create the sets, costumes, lights and special effects this season," says Producing Artistic Director Patrick Mulcahy. "Winners and nominees of our industry's leading awards are members of our teams here."

Tony nominee Michael McDonald (Hair, 2009) will design costumes for Oklahoma!

Six-time Emmy winner Bob Phillips returns to PSF to design sets for the mainstage repertory productions of The Importance of Being Earnest and Measure for MeasurE. Phillips has also received multiple awards for his stage work. He has designed more than three dozen productions for PSF since 1994.

PSF announces the following artistic teams for each production:

Rodgers and Hammerstein's
Oklahoma!

Music by Richard Rodgers
Book and Lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II
Based on the play Green Grow the Lilacs by Lynn Riggs
Original Dances by Agnes De Mille

Main Stage

Previews: June 12 & 13
Opens: June 14
Closes: June 30

Director: Dennis Razze
Musical Director: Nathan Diehl
Choreographer: Stephen Casey
Set Designer: David P. Gordon
Lighting Designer: Eric T. Haugen
Costume Designer: Michael McDonald
Sound Designer: Matthew Given
Fight Director: Rick Sordelet
Stage Manager: Robin Grady

The 39 Steps

Adapted by Patrick Barlow
From the novel by John Buchan
From the movie of Alfred Hitchcock

Schubert Theatre

Previews: June 19 & 20
Opens: June 21
Closes: July 14

Director: Matt Pfeiffer
Scenic Designer: Samina Vieth
Lighting Designer: Thom Weaver
Costume Designer: Lisa Zinni
Sound Designer: Matthew Given
Stage Manager: Margie Price

The Importance of Being Earnest
By Oscar Wilde

Main Stage

Previews: July 10 & 11
Opens: July 12
Closes: August 4

Director: Jim Helsinger
Scenic Designer: Bob Phillips
Lighting Designer: Thom Weaver
Costume Designer: Lisa Zinni
Sound Designer: Matthew Given
Stage Manager: Stacy Renee Norwood

Measure for Measure
By William Shakespeare

Main Stage

Previews: July 18 & 19
Opens: July 20
Closes: August 4

Director: Fontaine Syer
Scenic Designer: Bob Phillips
Lighting Designer: Thom Weaver
Costume Designer: Marla Jurglanis
Sound Designer: Matthew Given
Stage Manager: Stacy Renee Norwood

King Henry VIII
By William Shakespeare

Schubert Theatre

Preview: July 24
Opens: July 25
Closes: August 4

Stage Manager: Margie Price

This production will be rehearsed akin to the way Shakespeare's company would have. Actors arrive with their lines learned, rehearse on their own, wear what they can find and open in a matter of days. (PSF usually rehearses for nearly four weeks.) No director, no designers. The actors take charge.

Beauty and the Beast
By Michele L. Vacca

Schubert Theatre

Opens: May 31
Closes: August 3

Director: Gina Lamparella
Scenic Designer: Samina Vieth

Lighting Designer: Liz Elliot
Costume Designer: Amy E. Best
Sound Designer: Vince Basile
Wig & Make-Up Designer: Martha Ruskai
Stage Manager: Karyn Bohli

Shakespeare for Kids
By Erin Hurley

Main Stage Theatre

Opens: July 24
Closes: August 3

Director: Matt Pfeiffer

DIRECTOR BIOS:

Oklahoma!
Director: Dennis Razze
PSF Associate Artistic Director has directed all of PSF's musicals since the company introduced the genre to its artistic mix in 2006, including last season's acclaimed Sweeney Todd, starring William Michals in the title role and Dee Roscioli as Mrs. Lovett. He has directed 18 PSF productions and serves as director of the theatre program at DeSales University.

The 39 Steps
Director: Matt Pfeiffer
Returning to PSF for his 16th season, Festival credits include directing The Complete Works William Shakespeare (Abridged) and Dracula: The Journal of Jonathan Harker, as well as appearing in more than 15 productions. Pfeiffer serves as the Associate Artistic Director of Theatre Exile in Philadelphia. Other directing credits; Arden Theatre, Two River, Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Walnut St. Theatre, and Delaware Theatre Co. He is a seven-time Barrymore nominee and recipient of the F. Otto Haas Award. For PSF this summer, he is also directing the children's production, Shakespeare for Kids.

The Importance of Being Earnest
Director: Jim Helsinger
Helsinger will also be performing the role of Lady Bracknell in this production. PSF directing credits: The Tempest, The Merry Wives of Windsor, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Sleuth, The Imaginary Invalid, Charley's Aunt, and others. Other directing: Actor's Theatre of Louisville, Florida Studio Theatre, Actor's Playhouse, Florida Repertory Theatre, Cape May Stage, New York Fringe Festival and Orlando Shakespeare Theater in Partnership with UCF (where he serves as Artistic Director). As a playwright, his adaptation of Dracula the Journal of Jonathan Harker was also produced at PSF. He is a past president of the Shakespeare Theater Association, and a member of National Theatre Conference, and the National New Play Network.

Measure for Measure
Director: Fontaine Syer
Began her professional work at the Arena Stage, serving as Assistant Director to Alan Schneider and Zelda Fichandler on the 1973 tour to the then Soviet Union. Since then, Syer has worked as an actor, director, and, at times, Artistic Director in theatres across the country, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, the ALLIANCE THEATRE (Atlanta), the Missouri Repertory Theatre (now Kansas City Rep), the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, Theatre Project Company (St. Louis), Delaware Theatre Company, and Indiana Repertory Theatre among others. In the fall of 2005, she joined the faculty of Indiana University/Bloomington.

Beauty and the Beast
Director: Gina Lamparella
At PSF, Gina was the assistant director of Hamlet (2011), and played Miranda in The Tempest (1999). Other directing - the 2012 WillPower tour of Midsummer..., The Vagina Monologues (Hudson Valley, NY, and a bilingual production in Florence, Italy). She choreographed One Billion Rising Firenze. As an actor, her Broadway credits include: Phantom of the Opera, A Little Night Music, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Fiddler on the Roof, Gypsy, Imaginary Friends, Jane Eyre, and Les Miserables.

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