MARYLAND'S CHESAPEAKE SHAKESPEARE COMPANY INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN NATIONAL SHAKESPEARE EVENT

As a part of a press conference at the KennedyCenter for the Performing Arts on March 1, 2006, it was announced that the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company has been invited to be a participant in the Shakespeare in Washington Festival. Designed to be a national event, the festival will be held from January through June 2007 throughout the region. The largest Shakespeare festival of its type, Shakespeare in Washington will include a variety of arts organizations from the region and around the world.  Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, a three year-old theater company based in Howard County, is one of just three Maryland organizations invited to participate--the others being the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and The American Film Institute in Silver Spring.

Headlining the festival will be the Royal Shakespeare Company in performance at the Kennedy Center, D.C.'s Shakespeare Theatre Company, the Folger Library and Theatre, The Washington National Opera and The National Symphony Orchestra. In addition, a few smaller arts organizations were invited to attend based on the merit of their work. The list of local theater companies to be included in the six month festival is: Arena Stage, The Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, The Signature Theatre, The Washington Shakespeare Company, Theater J, the Synetic Theater and the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company.

"We are truly honored that The Shakespeare Theatre's Michael Kahn invited our small company to be part of this significant event," stated CSC Artistic Director Ian Gallanar.  "It's sort of mind boggling to be included with these brilliant organizations but I believe that our company can make a creative contribution to the festival. It is, obviously, a terrific opportunity for us to showcase our company."

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company productions of As You Like It and Henry V are slated to be performed outdoors in June 2007 at the PatapscoFemaleInstituteHistoricPark in Ellicott City, capping off the final month of the festival.  The plays will perform on alternating nights and will share the same cast in true repertory fashion. It is the only Shakespeare in Washington event to occur in HowardCounty, CSC's home for the past three years.

"CSC has been embraced for our outdoor productions and for our high-energy, entertaining approach," explained Managing Director Lesley Malin. "As the only theatre with Shakespeare in Washington performing outdoors, we feel that we are representing the open-air Shakespeare festivals that are so popular all across the country."

"We are particularly excited that the festival will be marketed nationally and even internationally by the KennedyCenter.  We hope to attract Shakespeare-lovers from Washington and elsewhere to see our talented young company and the unique venue of the PFIHistoricPark," added Malin.

Audiences can get a preview of CSC's high-energy style by attending this summer's Chesapeake Shakespeare Company-in-the-Ruins performances of The Taming of the Shrew and King Lear being performed by the same cast on alternating nights, weekends June 2-July 9, 2006 at the PFIHistoricPark in Ellicott City, Maryland.

For more information on Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, please contact Lesley Malin at 410.752.3994.