Shakespeare & Company Announces 2009-2010 Season

Shakespeare & Company, in the Berkshires, has announced selections for its 2009-2010 season, which will be the final one under the leadership of founding artistic director Tina Packer. As previously announced, Tony Simotes will take over the artistic reins beginning June 1.

In the Founders Theatre, Eleanor Holdridge will direct Shakespeare’s Hamlet (June 26-August 28), with a cast including Jason Asprey, Nigel Gore, Dennis Krausnick, Kevin O’Donnell, Packer, and Elizabeth Raetz; Simotes will direct Othello (July 3-September 6) with John Douglas Thompson and Michael Hammond; and Jonathan Croy will direct Twelfth Night (July 24-September 5), featuring Kevin O’Donnell.

The company’s “Diva Series,” performing in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, will include Willy Russell’s Shirley Valentine (May 27-31 and September 11) featuring Packer; The Actors Rehearse the Story of Charlotte Salomon (June 3-14 and September 12), written by David Bridel, Penny Kreitzer, and Jonathan Rest, directed by Jonathan Rest, and featuring Penny Kreitzer; and William Gibson’s Golda’s Balcony, directed by Daniel Gidron and featuring Annette Miller.

Also performing in the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre will be Romeo and Juliet (May 21-June 7), directed by Jonathan Croy and featuring Paul D’Agostino, Ben Brinton, Kaitlin Henderson, Alyssa Hughlett, Kelley Johnston, Sean Kazarian and Daniel Kurtz; Pinter’s Mirror: A Slight Ache, Family Voices, and Victoria Station, a collection of Harold Pinter one-acts directed by Normi Noel and starring Elizabeth Ingram and Malcolm Ingram; Measure for Measure (July 10-September 5), directed by Dave Demke; and Donald Freed’s Devil’s Advocate (July 30-August 16), with Ignatious Anthony and Dennis Krausnick.

Additional performances in the Bernstein will include John Patrick Shanley’s The Dreamer Examines His Pillow (August 7-September 6), directed by Tod Randolph and featuring John Douglas Thompson; J.T. Rogers’ White People (August 21-September 4), directed by Anna Brownsted and featuring Michael Hammond; The Hound of the Baskervilles (September 26-November 8), written by Steven Canny and John Nicholson, and directed by Simotes; Cindy Bella (Or The Glass Slipper) (December 3-20), written by Irina Brook and Anna Brownsted, with direction by Brook; and Christopher Hampton’s Les Liasons Dangereuses, directed by Packer, and featuring Elizabeth Aspenlieder.

The family-friendly Outdoor Bankside Festival will perform around the grounds, the Banksyde Terrace, and in the tented, outdoor Rose Footprint Theatre. Selections will include A.A. Milne’s Toad of Toad Hall (June 20-August 29), directed by Irina Brook and Word Play (August 13-September 6), by Dennis Krausnick.

Additional events will include a production from Shakespeare & Young Company (May 9, 10, August 19 & 21), the Studio Festival of Plays (September 7), a reading of the Declaration of Independence (July 4), and an outdoor “Preludes” series, beginning June 1.

For more information, visit www.shakespeare.org.