Single tickets to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival’s 2018 season are on sale. Tickets are available online, over the phone at 303- 492-8008 or in person at the CU Presents box office, 972 Broadway, Boulder.
The nation’s second-oldest Shakespeare festival is set to focus on hidden gems and modern classics in 2018. The season of epic love stories, family dramas and laugh-out-loud fun includes “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” “Richard III,” “Cyrano de Bergerac” and “You Can’t Take It With You.” As is tradition, CSF also offers a one-night-only Original Practices production of “Edward III,” which will sell out quickly.
Last season, CSF celebrated its 60th season with big-name plays and officially completed the full Shakespeare canon for a second time. Producing Artistic Director Timothy Orr says he was thrilled to look beyond those milestones and find endless possibilities. “The question we started asking ourselves was, ‘What now? What next?’” he says. “The answer was: ‘We can do anything.’ In a way, it’s a blank slate.”
Colorado Shakespeare Festival 2018 Season includes:
• Love’s Labour’s Lost, Brendon Fox directs. Start your summer with a frothy, funny celebration of love and learning. In the bucolic Kingdom of Navarre, 4 attractive young men make a pact to swear off romance and focus on academia… minutes before the four loves of their lives wander by. Mary Rippon Theatre, June 9-Aug. 12.
• Richard III, Wendy Franz directs. The Bard’s most murderous, malicious and mesmerizing king comes to the CSF indoor stage for the first time. Richard, Edward IV’s deformed and embittered younger brother, will do anything to take the crown for himself—but once he has the throne, everything falls apart. The masterful conclusion of Shakespeare’s Henriad history cycle still speaks volumes about lies, and honor. University Theatre, June 23-Aug. 11.
• Cyrano de Bergerac, based on the translation written by Anthony Burgess of the play written by Edmond Rostand; Christopher DuVal directs. This timeless romantic comedy has it all: passion, panache and thrilling swordplay. Cyrano, witty and proud but crippled by insecurity, secretly pines for Roxanne—but she has her eyes on handsome, empty-headed Christian. Mary Rippon Theatre, July 7-Aug. 11.
• You Can’t Take It With You, by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, Carolyn Howarth, directs. When Alice brings her boyfriend’s traditional, straight-laced family to dine with her household of freethinking eccentrics, fights break out and fireworks erupt. The 1930s classic is more relevant today than ever, University Theatre, July 21-Aug. 12.
• Edward III, By William Shakespeare and Thomas Kyd, Kevin Rich, directs. CSF’s beloved ‘Original Practices’ tradition continues with the gripping history play that’s been mired in mystery for hundreds of years. England’s king is out to capture the crown of France and the heart of a married countess. The cost of his lust? Personal humiliation and 150 years of English battle and bloodshed. Inspired by the stage practices of Shakespeare’s own time, is summer’s hottest ticket. Mary Rippon Theatre, Sunday, Aug. 5, 6:30 p.m.
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