[NEohioPAL] Ohio Shakespeare Festival opens "The Merchant of Venice"

[Nancy Cates]

Ohio Shakespeare Festival

330-673-8761 box office

 <http://www.ohioshakespeare.com/> www.ohioshakespeare.com

 

For Immediate Release

 

The Merchant of Venice opening at Ohio Shakespeare Festival 

featuring Robert Hawkes as Shylock 

 

 

Ohio Shakespeare Festival is performing for the eleventh summer at beautiful
Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens in Akron.  Following the success of the
season-opening comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream, OSF will present one of
William Shakespeare's most acclaimed and fascinating works, The Merchant of
Venice, running August 2-19.

 

The multi-layered Merchant is frequently considered to be both Shakespearean
comedy and drama, a nuanced piece with comic plotlines laced with serious
themes of betrayal, vengeance, greed and intrigue.  In it, moneylender
Shylock loans a large sum to merchant Antonio interest free, but with the
stipulation that, if the debt should go unpaid, Shylock would be entitled to
a pound of Antonio's flesh.

 

Robert Hawkes, an OSF veteran who has been well-known to Northeast Ohio
theatre-goers since the early 1980s, will portray the Jewish moneylender
Shylock.  Mr. Hawkes was seen last summer as Buckingham in Richard III, and
in 2010 as Gloucester in King Lear. Recently, he has been seen in November
at Lakeland Civic Theatre, The Internationalist at convergence-continuum,
October in the Chair at Cleveland Public Theatre, Middletown at Dobama
Theatre, and Much Ado About Nothing at the Southwest Shakespeare Company of
Mesa, AZ. 

 

Joining Mr. Hawkes is an impressive cast of both new and veteran OSF Company
members.  The performers include David McNees (King Lear) as Antonio, Lara
Knox (A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew) as Portia, Joe
Pine (Love's Labours Lost, The Taming of the Shrew) as Bassanio, Bernard
Bygott (A Midsummer Night's Dream) as Gratiano, Ernie Gonzalez (A Midsummer
Night's Dream, The Comedy of Errors) as Lancelot Gobbo, Jeremy Jenkins
(Love's Labours Lost, The Taming of the Shrew) as Lorenzo, Kyra Kelley (A
Midsummer Night's Dream) as Jessica, Alfred Anderson (The Taming of the
Shrew, Hamlet) as the Duke, and Tess Burgler (Love's Labours Lost, Romeo and
Juliet) as Nerissa.

 

Merchant audiences will get a special treat --- they will see the debut of
OSF's new Elizabethan stage. The playing space is modeled after
Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the natural arena for all the Bard's plays. The
new stage, supported in part by the Corbin Foundation, the Knight
Foundation, and the Akron Community Foundation, will serve as a permanent
playing area intended to enhance the quality and legitimacy of OSF's
Original Practice Shakespeare. Using this permanent stage, OSF can more
powerfully and authentically recreate Shakespeare's plays in what is thought
to be their original form.

 

The Merchant of Venice will preview on August 2 (all seats $12), open August
3, and perform through August 19. Performances are Thursday, Friday,
Saturday and Sunday nights at 8pm, with a Greenshow at 7:30pm consisting of
songs, dances and a hilarious parody of Romeo and Juliet, all performed by
the younger Company members.  Stan Hywet's grounds open at 6pm for
picnicking in a wide variety of scenic locations, and concessions are
available. 

 

Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens is located at 714 N. Portage Path in Akron.
Tickets are $30 for reserved seating (the first 100 seats closest to the
stage), or $25 for festival (open) seating.  Student tickets are $15, and
further discounts on adult tickets are available for OSF and Stan Hywet
Members.  Reservations may be made any time through OSF's web site at
<http://www.ohioshakespeare.com/> www.ohioshakespeare.com, or by calling the
box office at (330) 673-8761 daily (except Mondays) from noon to 5pm.

 

"Each OSF outing is a marvel of clarity and precision, rendering even the
most obtuse digressions by Will suddenly comprehensible. The result is a
kind of euphoric time travel in which one feels transported back 400 years
to the Globe Theatre, relishing all of the Bard's words with immediate glee
just as his audiences did then." (Akron Beacon Journal)

"The essence of summer evening perfection." (Cleveland Scene Magazine's
review of OSF's July production of A Midsummer Night's Dream) 

 

-- End --

 

 





 

 

 

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