THE WINTER'S TALE Begins This Week At Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse

This February, the University of Washington School of Drama will present The Winter's Tale, directed by the visionary Kate Drummond. The production runs at the Floyd and Delores Jones Playhouse from February 13-23, 2025.

Part fairy tale, part psychological drama, and wholly transformative, this production weaves together heartbreak and hope, betrayal, and redemption-ultimately proving that even the coldest winters give way to spring.

In this fresh interpretation, Drummond, a UW Drama MFA Candidate in Directing, redefines Shakespeare's late romance by exploring themes of second chances, forgiveness, and the power of belief. "It is a hard thing to forgive someone, to believe someone can change for the better," she reflects. "But that brave act of imagination is critical to a better world."

Drummond's adaptation leans into the play's contrasting tones-its devastating first half and its playful, hopeful second-to heighten its emotional impact.

At the heart of this adaptation is a newly conceived arc for Autolycus, the play's trickster-turned-narrator. Traditionally a rogue, he now serves as an unreliable storyteller who no longer believes in magic. "He sets out to tell a story about how the only way to get ahead is to push others down, to be cunning and selfish," Drummond explains. "But he learns along the way that the world isn't quite that simple-and what happily ever after really looks like."

This reinterpretation of The Winter's Tale embraces Shakespeare's dramatic tonal shift-from psychological intensity to whimsical comedy-by infusing both weight and wonder into the performance. "Tragedy is more salient when we see what a beautiful thing is being lost," says Drummond. "Even amidst the horrible events of the first act, the characters cling to their joy, fight for it."

At a time of global division and uncertainty, The Winter's Tale offers a timely meditation on transformation and hope. Kate Drummond's production invites and challenges audiences to examine and reflect on the narratives they tell themselves about the world around them. "Are the stories we're telling today reflecting the world we want to see tomorrow?" Drummond asks. Through this production, she hopes to inspire audiences to leave the theater with a renewed hope in our human capacity to change. "I believe in the magic of theater," she says. "Something undeniably powerful happens when a room full of people believe something together. What if the thing we believed in was our own capacity to be better?"

Drummond's Winter's Tale is more than a play-it's an invitation to imagine, to believe, and to rediscover the power of change.

"Something powerful happens when a room full of people believes something together," Drummond says. "What if the thing we believed in was our own capacity to be better?"

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