Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival Announces 2010 Season

Artistic excellence and audience enthusiasm created a record-breaking season for The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival this past summer and position the company for continued growth in 2010.

"Record-setting attendance in this economy was actually humbling," says Patrick Mulcahy, producing artistic director. "It reinforces our belief that the arts are not optional - they fulfill a fundamental human longing and play an indispensable role in the health and vitality of our community.

"Our mission is to enrich, inspire, engage and entertain," Mulcahy says. "At the end of each season we look at a variety of measures to assess how we are accomplishing that mission. High attendance is encouraging on many levels."

The 2010 season will feature Shakespeare's incomparable and iconic star-crossed lovers in Romeo and Juliet and his buoyant and jovial comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor. J.M. Synge's Irish masterpiece The Playboy of the Western World and Stephen Sondheim's classic musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum add to the richness and dimension of the season, along with Robin Hood and a new Shakespeare for Kids for children and families.

The Festival's nineteenth season opens June 18 in the Schubert Theatre with The Playboy of the Western World. Mulcahy likens this personal favorite to "a wild Irish yarn told around the hearth, to the delight of all who hear." The first Main Stage production, June 23 - July 11, will be Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. "PSF has the comic talents to make this show shine," says PSF Associate Artistic Director Dennis Razze, who will direct. "This is the first musical where Sondheim wrote both the music and lyrics - following his great success as the lyricist for West Side Story."

Shakespeare's matchless comedian Falstaff tries to seduce a pair of married wives in The Merry Wives of Windsor. According to theatrical lore, Falstaff's braggart antics in Henry IV, Part 1 and Part 2 so delighted Queen Elizabeth that she told Shakespeare to write a play with the fat knight in love. The production will be performed July 14 - August 8 in the Schubert Theatre.

Romeo and Juliet is "a high-stakes battle between the universal forces of love and hatred," says Mulcahy. "The play is half romantic comedy, half explosive tragedy, and the lyric love poetry is unparalleled." Romeo and Juliet will play on the Main Stage July 21 - August 8.

For children ranging in age from elementary school to early middle school, PSF will offer a new adaptation of Robin Hood and an all-new Shakespeare for Kids. "Robin Hood is a classic title filled with memorable characters and adventures that boys and girls will find exciting," says PSF Education Director Erin Hurley, who directs both Robin Hood and Shakespeare for Kids.

The introduction of Shakespeare for Kids in the 2009 season was "everything we hoped it would be and the positive feedback we received encouraged me to write a new script for 2010," says Hurley. "People enjoyed the interactive nature of the production and how ‘Team Shakespeare' engaged the audience with songs, puppets, and Shakespeare's text."

Ticket sales for the 2010 season begin with subscription renewals in December. New subscriptions will be available in February, and single tickets will go on sale April 1, 2010.

The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival at DeSales University is the Official Shakespeare Festival of The Commonwealth and a professional, not-for-profit theatre company. An independent 501 c 3 organization, PSF receives support from DeSales University and relies on contributions from individuals, government agencies, corporations and foundations. PSF is a constituent of the Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national organization for the American theatre, and a member of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia, Lehigh Valley Arts Council, and the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America.

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