Cumpsty’s Hamlet Kicks Off CSC’s 2005-2006 Season

Classic Stage Company will kick off its 2005-2006 season with a new production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet starring Michael Cumpsty in the title role. The production, which will run November 2-December 11, will be directed by Brian Kulick, CSC’s artistic director. Cumpsty, who is currently starring in The Constant Wife, has appeared on Broadway in Democracy, Copenhagen, and 42nd Street.

CSC’s next mainstage production will be Fragment 174, which runs March 22-April 9. This new work by Obie Award-winner Charles L. Mee — which is inspired by Sophocles’ The Dolopians — tells an imaginative tale of a rebellious son who is forced by his father to wander the world as an external exile. It will be directed by Pavol Liska, who staged Three Sisters for CSC last season.

The final 2005-2006 mainstage presentation will be the Target Margin Theater production of Faust, Part 1 and Faust, Part 2 by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, translated by Douglas Langworthy, and directed by David Herskovits.

In addition, CSC’s 38th season will feature the return of its popular First Look Festival, a series of one-night-only staged readings of rarely seen classics, performed by notable actors. This season’s offerings, which will be seen on Monday November 21, November 28 and December 5, are Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, John Marston’s Antonio’s Revenge, and Philip Massinger’s The Roman Actor.

As well, the CSC Young Company, a new collaboration with acting students from the Columbia University School of the Arts’ MFA program, will present Moliere’s Scapin and The Misanthrope in repertory, January 3-15. Finally, in May 2006, CSC’s “Monday Night Open Rehearsal” series returns with William Shakespeare’s King Lear.

For more information, visit www.classicstage.org