Atlanta Shakespeare Company/American Shakespeare Tavern

Season Adds New Plays to Shakespeare Lineup

Doing some things new along with things old but staying bold, the Atlanta Shakespeare Company has announced its 2014–2015 season for the New American Shakespeare Tavern.

The season will open Sept. 11 with William Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Directed by Founding Artistic Director Jeff Watkins, the production will feature Andy Offutt Irwin as Gower, the Chorus. This is part of what the Tavern calls The Shakespeare Evolution Series: The Romances, charting a course through all of Shakespeare's romance plays. Another entry in that series this season will be The Winter's Tale, also directed by Watkins, in March.

Timing the performances with Halloween, the company will produce Shakespeare's Macbeth in October, directed by Troy Willis with Watkins and Mary Russell as Lord and Lady Macbeth. In what has become a Valentine's Day tradition for the company, Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is slated for February, directed by Matt Felten. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, directed by J. Tony Brown, is scheduled for December.

Other Shakespeare on the schedule are The Merry Wives of Windsor in January, directed by J. Tony Brown and featuring Spencer G. Stephens as Falstaff, Twelfth Night in May directed by Drew Reeves, and Coriolanus in June, also directed by Reeves and starring Jonathan Horne in the title role and Heidi Cline McKerley as Volumnia. Coriolanus is a continuation of The Shakespeare Evolution Series: The Tragedies.

The company has also scheduled two popular 20th century plays: Arthur Miller's The Crucible in November and Thornton Wilder's Our Town in April. Watkins is slated to direct The Crucible, and Andrew Houchins has been tapped to helm Our Town.

Tickets for all productions, including Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors, which is playing through Sept. 7, are available at the New American Shakespeare Tavern website. For production dates, go to Bard on the Boards.

August 28, 2014

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