The Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s 58th annual season opens June 5th with a professional acting company that includes television and film star Peter Macon, perennial favorites and fresh new faces.
Emmy Award winner Macon stars as Othello, reprising a role he played at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival 2008 & Minneapolis’ Guthrie Theater in 2014.
In addition to treading the boards on and Off Broadway his film and television credits include roles on Dexter, The Shield and Law and Order. He received a 2002 Emmy Award for his voiceover performance on Animal Tales of the World. Tickets on sale now.
Other highlights from the 2015 acting company include:
Geoffrey Kent, a favorite at CSF for his comic roles and ingenious direction, plays Macon’s foil as Iago, one of Shakespeare’s most complex and sinister villains.
Polish-born actor Laura Baranik, a veteran of the stage in Prague and New York who speaks four languages, plays Othello’s wife Desdemona.
Rising young star Benjamin Bonenfant returns as the title role in Henry V, continuing the story of the young prince he played in Henry IV, parts 1 and 2 in 2014.
Peter Simon Hilton and Vanessa Morosco play the lovers Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing. The couple met while playing Mistress and Master Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and celebrated their first anniversary in CSF’s production of the play last summer.
Denver Center for the Performing Arts favorite Lawrence Hecht—last seen at CSF as a most unexpected Puck in Kent’s 2013 hit, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, plays a devilish Dr. Faustus to an uptight Martin Luther played by his early-career colleague and West Coast star Howard Swain in the brainy, zany 15th-century campus caper, Wittenberg. The season stars many award winners and favorites, including Jenna Bainbridge, Sean Scrutchins, Denver Center “man of a thousand faces” Rodney Lizcano and more.
CSF’s 2015 season features several notable milestones:
• The first outdoor production of Othello since 1996
• The first performances of Henry VI, Part 1, since 1967
• The completion, with Henry V, of the Henriad cycle begun in 2013
• The Colorado and regional premier of Wittenberg, a comedy by Colorado playwright David Davalos that has inspired rave reviews in New York and beyond
• Directing debuts for nationally known Shakespeare artists Jim Helsinger of the Orlando Shakespeare Theater and Lisa Wolpe, founder of the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Co.
CSF 2015 season lineup:
• Much Ado About Nothing. Mary Rippon Theatre, Jun. 5-Aug. 9. Romantic, raucous and razor-sharp, the Hamlet of Shakespeare comedies strikes hilarious chords even as it reveals timeless truths about love, change and acceptance. Directed by Jim Helsinger, artistic director, Orlando Shakespeare Festival.
• Wittenberg. By David Davalos. University Theatre, June 11-Aug. 8 To believe or not to believe? That is the question when Prince Hamlet, a senior at Wittenberg University, circa 1517, is caught in the crossfire between two giants of philosophy and ego. Colorado premiere. Directed by Timothy Orr.
• Othello. Mary Rippon Theatre, June 26-Aug. 8. In a country at war, Othello the Moor commands with nobility of spirit, drawing strength from his wife, Desdemona. But he has placed his trust in one of Shakespeare’s most sinister villains, Iago who sows seeds of doubt and destruction. Directed by Lisa Wolpe, Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Co.
• Henry V. University Theatre, July 16-Aug. 9. England’s crown rests on the head of the once wild and undisciplined acolyte of Falstaff, Prince Hal, now a wise and noble monarch leading his country into war with France. Directed by Carolyn Howarth, director of CSF’s 2014 production of Henry IV, Part 1.
• Henry VI, Part 1.(original practices production). University Theatre, Aug. 2 and 5. CSF presents two exclusive, “original practices” shows of Henry VI, Part 1, the rarely produced saga of Henry V’s son. Directed by Vanessa Morosco.