Sam Mendes’ The Bridge Project Delays Final Installment to 2012

The final installment of the Bridge Project, a three-year collaboration between the Brooklyn Academy of Music, London’s Old Vic Theatre and Sam Mendes’ Neal Street Productions, has been postponed a year until 2012, according to a report in The New York Times. The delay is due to scheduling conflicts.

The Bridge Project made its debut in 2009 at BAM with Mendes’ staging of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale and Anton Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. The productions used one cast, comprised of American and British actors and later traveled to Britain, Singapore, New Zealand, Spain, Germany, and Greece. The second installment of the project included As You Like It and The Tempest, also staged by Mendes. The shows were seen at BAM earlier this year and are currently playing in repertory at the Old Vic.

Plays for the Bridge Project’s last season have not yet been announced. Mendes’ upcoming schedule includes the previously announced musical version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in 2011 and King Lear for the Royal National Theater in 2012.