As an art form, it seems that opera is having a hard time finding its footing with the current generation of young professionals. Increasingly, opera companies are scaling back as their current subscribers have no one to pass their torches on to. Despite this, dell'Arte Opera Ensemble is continuing their ambitious and altogether intimate 2014 summer season with a beautifully performed production of Giuseppe Verdi's MACBETH.

Kansas City Actors Theatre has announced the opening of the centerpiece of its 10th season: a rotating repertory of Shakespeare's Hamlet and Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

Long Wharf Theatre's Shake-it-up-Shakespeare Youth Ensemble brings its unique take on the classics to Much Ado About Nothing, performed on Stage II, today, August 21-24.

Casting has been announced for Pocket Dream, a sixty minute version of Propeller's critically-acclaimed production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Summer 1958 - an English country village - A magical mix of folk and morris, rock n'roll and jive, enchantment and mayhem.

Featuring live music from a team of actor musicians, Rose Bridge Theatre company transports one of Shakespeare's most popular works to the age of rock n roll age, an age when youth shakes off the shackles of post war austerity, when music shouts loud and anything seems possible.

Leftend Productions presents a high-energy, music-filled, wondrous production of William Shakespeare's TWELFTH NIGHT, from October 3 through October 26, Fridays & Saturdays at 7:30 pm, Sunday matinees at 3 PM, at The Den Theatre, 1333 N. Milwaukee Ave.

The Old Globe's production of Shakespeare's The Two Gentlemen of Verona, directed by Globe alumnus, and Tony Award nominee Mark Lamos (Compleat Female Stage Beauty, Pentecost, Resurrection Blues) began on August 10 and opens tonight, August 16, at the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. The production runs through September 14, 2014.

Hamlet Isn't Dead is proud to present Henry VI parts I, II & III in Repertory over the first three weeks of September at the WOW Cafe Theatre!

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company presents the 2014 FREE Shakespeare in the Park Tour presented by PNC! This year's tour is bigger than ever with 26 performances of 'Macbeth' and 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' throughout the Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky area at local community parks and venues. These performances are FREE and open to the public! With 12 performances completed and 14 to go, the audiences continue to grow at each location - remaining shows in West Chester, Deerfield Township, Washington Park, Edgewood, Maysville, Blue Ash, Vinoklet, Price Hill, Madeira, Hamilton, Colerain, Oxford and more. Get a look at the cast in action below!

Shakespeare Rep has announced its 2014-15 season line-up. A Season of Wonders will pair two enchanting romantic comedies that spotlight the magic of love: Almost, Maine by John Cariani and William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

What a wonder is love in the hands of a writer like Shakespeare. Through comedy, tragedy, sonnet and poem, the way he captures lovers and their essence is pure magic. In MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, bringing that magic to life rests largely with its leading man and lady, and when a company gets the pairing right, the experience is so thoroughly engaging you never want it to end.

Seattle Public Theater's (SPT) Youth present a festive, grunge-era take on William Shakespeare's classic comedy-romance, As You Like It.

Join Hershey Area Playhouse for an evening of Shakespearean fun with its presentation of the classic tale The Tempest this weekend, August 15th and 16th at 7: 30 PM and August 17th at 2 PM.

The award-winning Boomerang Theatre Company and Artistic Director Tim Errickson, in association with Bryant Park Shakespeare, are excited to announce their production of LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST by William Shakespeare, directed by Associate Artistic Director Cailin Heffernan. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST will be presented at Bryant Park (Upper Terrace Steps, 42nd Street and 6th Avenue), Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., beginning Thursday, August 14 through Saturday, August 30, 2014. BroadwayWorld has a sneak peek at the cast in rehearsal below!

Gorilla Rep is back to its old tricks -- that is giving New Yorkers free performances of William Shakespeare's classic comedy, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Beginning today, August 14, 2014, performances will run for four weeks - from Thursday through Sunday at 8 p.m. starting at the Southwest corner of Washington Square Park.

James Cady's all-male version of Hamlet presented by Champion Productions, plays at the Musical Theatre Southwest Center for Theatre today, August 14-24.

'Denmark's a prison.' Those words spoken by Hamlet in William Shakespeare's play, written more than 400 years ago, inspired veteran director James Cady to set his production of Hamlet in a state penitentiary. 'I don't know if I'm the first director to stage the play this way, but actual prisoners have been producing the play as part of their rehabilitation for several years. The play seems to speak, on a deeply emotional and redemptive level, to inmates whose crimes parallel the characters in Hamlet, primarily murder and revenge.'

After winning over New York City audiences with their rambunctious brand of revelry back in April, SHOTSPEARE is back by popular demand at The Slipper Room for four nights only with Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet Thursday, August 7, 14 and 21 and Monday, August 11. All shows are at 8:00 PM.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) announces today the casting and creative team for William Shakespeare's towering epic King Lear, directed by CSTFounder and Artistic Director Barbara Gaines and featuring Chicago theater legend Larry Yando in the title role. A wrenching story of love, loss and reconciliation, the unraveling of an imperious king has fascinated audiences for more than 400 years. Gaines brings audiences aKing Lear for our times, especially relevant as today's generation wrestles with the harrowing effects of aging on loved ones. King Lear opens Chicago Shakespeare's 2014/15 season in the Courtyard Theater, September 9-November 9, 2014.

As always the opening night of a show is very exciting. Seeing the folks you know in the audience, saying hello to your seat neighbors, and getting a sneak peek see the portions of the set that Idaho Shakespeare Festival allows you to see before the show begins. I try to not do any research on a play I am going to see before I see it. Especially if I do not know anything about it yet. I like to give the theatre a chance to explain to me what will happen on their own terms.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S THE TEMPEST, the last of his romantic comedies, was written in 1610 and published in 1623. This great romantic comedy has it all: danger, intrigue, politics, revenge, a mighty sorcerer, and his beautiful daughter who falls deeply in love at first sight with the handsome prince who is so conveniently shipwrecked near her island home. THE TEMPEST still exerts an influence over popular culture four centuries later, ranging from "Forbidden Planet" to "Gilligan's Island" to "Lost."

New arts center raises the bar for a Shakespeare favorite

It begins with a wager and ends with a food fight and in between the laughs fly fast and furious in Independent Shakespeare Co.'s THE TAMING OF THE SHREW. Yes, throughout much of the play those laughs come at the expense of one woman, Katherine (Melissa Chalsma as the shrew of the title), but director David Melville turns the shenanigans into an indisputably jolly event.

In New York City, summer and Shakespeare go hand in hand. For their 2014 Season the dell'Arte Opera Ensemble is producing 'A Summer of Shakespeare,' and they kicked off this season with a fully staged production of Henry Purcell's THE FAIRY QUEEN. While giving the show a modern twist, dell'Arte Opera Ensemble followed traditional convention and has set the piece into an abridged version of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM. The end product is a light-hearted yet ambitious production that enchants.