Folger Theatre Announces 2013/14 Season; ROMEO AND JULIET, TWO GENTELMEN IN VERONA and RICHARD III

Folger Theatre's artistic producer Janet Alexander Griffin today announced the season for 2013/14. Building on its reputation for productions called "breathtakingly original" by The Washington Post, the theater will mount a full season of William Shakespeare, in honor of the author's 450th birthday anniversary year.

The season begins with the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, directed by Helen Hayes Award-winner Aaron Posner (The Taming of the Shrew and Cyrano at the Folger). The Machiavellian rise to power in Richard III is staged by Robert Richmond (Henry V, Othello, Henry VIII). The Folger then
welcomes New York's Fiasco Theater to present the comedy The Two Gentlemen of Verona. In a special limited engagement, the Fiasco Theater will also present the DC premiere of their acclaimed production of Cymbeline, which The New Yorker declared to be "a playful and inspired work of art."

Folger Theatre is the centerpiece of Folger Shakespeare Library's programs for the public and is recognized for dynamic performances in the 250-seat Elizabethan-styled theatre, specializing in innovative stagings of works by Shakespeare, other classical work, and new plays inspired by these traditions. Since 1991, Folger Theatre has been honored by the Helen Hayes Awards with 18 awards and 116 nominations for excellence in acting, direction, design, and production-including the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Resident Play in 2011 for Hamlet (a year in which all three of Folger's theatrical productions were nominated in that category). In September 2012, Folger Theatre brought from London Shakespeare's Globe's Hamlet for the company's first Washington appearance. Janet Alexander Griffin is the Artistic Producer of Folger Theatre and Director of Public Programs which includes the Folger's music and literary series.

Subscriptions and individual tickets are now on sale. Visit www.folger.edu/theatre for more
information, or call the Folger Box Office at 202.544.7077.