Dreaming of Lear
FEB 29-MAR 3 at The Kranzberg, Black Box Theatre
Produced by the St. Louis University Department of Theatre and Dance, Dreaming of Lear involves collaboration with members of the PPA Alumni Theatre Company.
A multi-media reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s tragedy filtered through our unconsciousness. It is a work of devised theatre in which participating artists reconstruct the play based on dreams they have while listening to recordings of King Lear. Tickets at www.prisonperformingarts.org.
Britches: A Play for Lady Romeos by Courtney Bailey (Confluence Playwright, 2022)
MAR 14 at WERDCC, Vandalia, Missouri
Presented by Prison Performing Arts in collaboration with artists from the Alumni Theatre Company and WERDCC
Britches! A Play for Lady Romeos celebrates the actors of WERDCC, a group of performers who are no strangers to playing male Shakespeare roles. Based loosely on the life of Charlotte Cushman, a nineteenth-century American actor famous for playing Shakespeare’s Romeo, Britches! tells the story of Charlotte and her sister, Susan Cushman, when they played Romeo and Juliet in 1846. The creation of this play was funded by an Artistic Research Fellowship from The Folger Shakespeare Library, the world’s premier research institution for the study of William Shakespeare. Learn more at www.prisonperformingarts.org
Romeo & Juliet
MAR 16 at Stiefel House
Presented by St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and The Big Muddy Dance Company
American composer Adam Schoenberg writes music that sounds like a cross between Radiohead and Copland. His Picture Studies, a 21st-century version of Mussorgsky’s timeless Pictures at an Exhibition, brings disparate works of visual art to musical life, enhanced by choreography. One of Stéphane’s favorite ballet scores, Sergei Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet captures the thrills and tragedy of a star-crossed love. Tickets at https://shop.slso.org/
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
APR 5 – 13 at Lift for Life Academy Theatre
Presented by St. Louis Shakespeare
Immerse yourself in the world of Hamlet, a gripping story of vengeance and moral corruption. This Shakespearean classic invites the audience into the troubled mind of Prince Hamlet, who, haunted by his father’s ghost, seeks to avenge his untimely death. Set in the gloomy castle of Elsinore, the play weaves a tale of deception, madness, and existential dread. https://www.stlshakespeare.org/
Spirits to Enforce by Mickle Maher
MAY 2 – 18 at The Kranzberg Black Box theatre.
Presented by Midnight Company • Directed by Lucy Cashon
An utterly unique theatrical trip based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. The Fathom City Enforcers have finally imprisoned their arch-nemesis, Professor Cannibal and taken up residence in a secret submarine. Undertaking the most critical work of their crimefighting mission – fundraising. Their Plan? They’re getting ready to present a “Superheroic” benefit performance of The Tempest. Tickets at MetroTix.com
Julius Ceaser by George Frideric Handel
JUN 9 – 28 at the Loretto Hilton Center
Presented by Opera Theatre of St. Louis
A love so powerful it shook empires. Who said that passion and politics make for poor bedfellows? Experience Handel’s captivating love story of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, whose audacious affair rewrote history. As sparks fly between these two rulers, love becomes a battlefield, and the most important conquest is that of the heart. But with pretenders to the throne lurking on all sides, desire can sometimes be a double-sided weapon. Tickets at https://opera-stl.org
Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
JUL 11 – 21
Presented by Clayton Community Theater • Directed by Heather Sartin
Sword fights, long-lost twins, singing, dancing, and yellow socks all work together to weave a tale of restoration and love. Complete with mistaken identities, misguided romance, misplaced affection and a mysterious love letter, this play makes as easy an introduction to Shakespeare’s works as it does an evening with a familiar friend.
Tempest in a Teapot by Shualee Cook (Confluence Playright, 2019)
SEP 11-28 at The Chapel
Presented by SATE • Directed by Ellie Schwetye
At age 10, Alice Liddell inspired Lewis Carroll to write Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But at age 21, she finds herself trapped between the fantasy world created for her, and the restrictive Victorian world of Oxford, England – each with a very specific role she is expected to play. Then a chance meeting with Carroll after years of silence leads her down the rabbit hole again to the Mad Tea Party, where a seemingly casual suggestion by Carroll that she read Shakespeare’s The Tempest turns into a philosophical treasure hunt. Tickets at https://satestl.wordpress.com/.
