California Shakespeare Theater Announces Cast and Creative Team For THE WINTER'S TALE

California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) returns to the Bruns Amphitheater with The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare, adapted by Artistic Director Eric Ting and Resident Dramaturg Philippa Kelly, and directed by Ting, playing September 1- 26, 2021 at the Bruns Amphitheater.

"The Winter's Tale brings us back to the Bruns after the long winter of this past year," says Ting. "I'm humbled to be joined by such extraordinary Bay Area artists as we navigate Shakespeare's profound examination of jealousy and love, friendship and suspicion, loss and reunion, and the lengths we'll go to to avoid the hard-and liberating-truths. This will be a grand collaboration, filled with music and dance and laughter and tears and maybe-just maybe-a codpiece or two."

The Winter's Tale is part of Cal Shakes' ongoing Season of Shared Light that included performances from Destiny Arts and Bandaloop, West Edge Opera, Papermoon Presents, and Good Medicine: A Night of Native Stand-Up Comedy, among others.

The new adaptation features an entirely local Bay Area cast of actors initially contracted to perform in Cal Shakes' cancelled 2020 Season including Bruns veterans: Safiya Fredericks (she/her; black odyssey, 2016's Much Ado About Nothing at Cal Shakes; most recently Hieroglyph with San Francisco Playhouse and Lorraine Hansberry Theatre; 2019 Company Member at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; among many other local and regional credits), Dean Linnard (he/him; 2019's A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Good Person of Szechwan at Cal Shakes; Twelfth Night, Love's Labour's Lost at Marin Shakespeare Company; Hand to God, Bad Jews at Left Edge Theatre; Groundhog Day: The Musical at San Francisco Playhouse-San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award; The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, and Taming of the Shrew at Vermont Shakespeare Festival; among others around the Bay and regionally), Craig Marker (he/him; 2017's As You Like It, 2015's King Lear, 2010's Macbeth, 2009's Romeo and Juliet at Cal Shakes; Sovereignty, Anne Boleyn, Invisible Hand at Marin Theatre Company; Noises Off at San Francisco Playhouse; and The Liar at Center REPertory Company; among many others in the Bay and abroad), Sharon Shao (she/her; The Good Person of Szechwan at Cal Shakes; Hamlet at Oakland Theater Project, Iron Shoes at Shotgun Players, Utopia at Cutting Ball Theater, among other Bay Area credits), Victor Talmadge (he/him; Everybody and The Good Person of Szechwan at Cal Shakes; Long Day's Journey into the Night at Oakland Theater Project; Broadway's November; National Tour of The King and I; LA Production of The Lion King; among many other regional and local credits), dane troy (he/him; 2019's Macbeth at Cal Shakes; Native Son and Jazz at Marin Theatre Company, Cardboard Piano at New Conservatory Theatre Company), and Phil Wong (he/him; The Good Person of Szechwan at Cal Shakes, among many Bay Area credits; co-founder of Bay Area Theatre Cypher, a collective of artists and activists who live at the crossfader of Theatre and Hip Hop).

Making their Cal Shakes debuts are Regina Morones (she/her; Retablos at Word for Word; Utopia at Cutting Ball Theater; As You Like It at San Francisco Shakespeare Festival where she is a resident artist; and Women Laughing Alone with Salad at Shotgun Players) and Cathleen Riddley (she/her; Bay Area credits: Tree and Man of La Mancha at San Francisco Playhouse, The Time of Your Life at American Conservatory Theater, To Kill a Mockingbird at TheatreWorks, Pericles at Marin Shakespeare Company; Hamlet and brownsville song at Shotgun Players, among others).

Single tickets for The Winter's Tale range from $30 to $65 marking a lower average ticket price across sections than previous seasons. Prices, dates, titles, and artists are subject to change. For information or to charge tickets by phone with VISA, MasterCard, Discover or American Express, call the Cal Shakes Box Office at 510.548.9666 (Tuesday- Friday 2-6 pm). Additional information and online ticketing are available at www.calshakes.org.

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