PA Shakespeare Festival Presents Christopher Coucill in Underneath the Lintel , 7/26

"A small play confronting profound ideas," Underneath the Lintel by GLen berger comes to the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival for one night only, Monday, July 26, at 7:30pm on the Main Stage of the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts at DeSales University.

A play that Variety calls "powerfully human and ultimately sublime," Underneath the Lintel explores the world and its mysteries through the words of one man, who has rented a lecture hall to share his discoveries with anyone who will listen. Christopher Coucill, a Broadway veteran whose Festival credits include Don Quixote and King Lear, plays a Dutch librarian, a fussbudget shaken from his routine of assessing overdue fees when a book checked out 113 years ago crosses his desk.

The journey to track down the borrower-"so I can send him the fine of his life!"-leads the Librarian through London, China, Bonn, the United States, and Australia, in an adventure "that makes ‘The Da Vinci Code' seem like a game of hide-and-seek." (Variety)

"There is something very special about the power of a single actor holding an audience transfixed in the telling of a great story," says Patrick Mulcahy, producing artistic director. Underneath the Lintel is the second of the Festival's three "one-night-only" offerings, including an adaptation of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters earlier this season, and the Finale Cabaret on Sunday, August 1st. Says Variety, "This is not just a who-did-it mystery but a larger examination of existence, mortality and the indomitable spirit of even the most incidental of men living on the margins of their times."

Tickets for the performance are $25 and are available by calling the PSF Box Office at 610-282-WILL [9455] and online at www.pashakespeare.org. Pennsylvania Council on the Arts is the 2010 Season Sponsor. Associate Season Sponsors are the Harry C. Trexler Trust, The Morning Call and Service Electric Cable TV & Communications. Director Sponsors are Linda Lapos and Paul Wirth.

The 2010 Festival also features The Merry Wives of Windsor (through August 8 in the Schubert Theatre), Romeo and Juliet (July 21-August 8 on the Main Stage); and for children: Robin Hood (through August 7 in the Schubert Theatre) and Shakespeare for Kids (July 28-August7). Single ticket prices range from $25 to $50. Discounts are available for subscribers, seniors, students, and groups. Children's' show prices are $9-$15. Tickets can be ordered by calling 610-282-WILL or online at www.pashakespeare.org.

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, the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America, the Lehigh Valley Arts Council, and Discover Lehigh Valley.

Artist Biography: Christopher Coucill returns to the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival where he's appeared as Stephen Hopkins in 1776, Lear in King Lear, and Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha. Other credits include Broadway: The Graduate, Kiss Me Kate, Annie Get Your Gun. National Tour: Crazy for You. Off-Broadway: Portraits, The Fantasticks, The Rothschilds, A Funny Thing...Forum. Regional: McCarter Theatre, Arena Stage, Hartford Stage, Shakespeare & Company, The Huntingdon, Dallas Theater Center, and many others. Television: Deadline, Law & Order, One Life to Live, O Pioneers!, Margaret Mead: An Observer Observed. Member Actors' Equity Association.

To post a comment, you must register and login.