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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Ohio Shakespeare Festival<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>507 E. Crain Avenue<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Kent, OH 44240<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>330-673-8761 box office<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>www.ohioshakespeare.com<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><b><i><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>For Immediate Release<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><b><i><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Ohio Shakespeare Festival Begins Building Globe Inspired Stage for <o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>2012 Season: <i>A Midsummer Night’s Dream</i> and <i>The Merchant of Venice<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><b><i><span style='font-size:14.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></b></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Ohio Shakespeare Festival is performing for the eleventh summer at beautiful and historic Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens in Akron. Since its origin in 2002, OSF has produced Shakespeare’s plays as vital, popular entertainment for modern audiences. The mission is simple and simply effective: performing Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s way, with an eye toward authenticity, or what the academic community more shrewdly terms, Original Practice methods. This season, OSF is committing to their Original Practices in a whole new way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Previous years’ audiences have seen Original Practices in almost every aspect of OSF’s productions. Over the past 11 years, OSF has trained their core company members in the acting styles most likely used by Shakespeare's own players. They use Elizabethan "special effects," relying as little as possible on modern technology (e.g. using a hand spun wind machine, live musicians, and trap door escapes). Like Shakespeare's players, they perform in an open-air environment, relying heavily on natural lighting. The only prominent area that has not yet reflected the Original Practice <span style='color:black'>paradigm</span> is an ever-changing stage. Shakespeare wrote his plays with one particular space in mind. The traditional design of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre is the natural arena for all the Bard's plays. This summer, OSF will design and build this type of Elizabethan stage. It will serve as a permanent playing area intended to enhance the quality and legitimacy of their Original Practice Shakespeare. Work will begin this summer on the new playing space, and the summer productions (<i>A Midsummer Night’s Dream & The Merchant of Venice), </i>as well as all future OSF productions,<i> </i>will perform on the same stage, with only ornamental alterations. Once this permanent stage has been designed and built, OSF can more powerfully and authentically recreate Shakespeare in its "original" form.</span><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>While the <i>A Midsummer Night’s Dream</i>’s set will display the beginnings of our new stage, the scenic surroundings of Stan Hywet’s lagoon will serve as a natural backdrop for the show’s enchanted<i> </i>forest. The new stage, supported in part by the Corbin Foundation, the Knight Foundation, and the Akron Community Foundation, will appear in full glory for <i>The Merchant of Venice</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><i><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>Midsummer </span></i><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>previews July 5, and runs July 6-22. <i>Merchant</i> previews August 2<sup>nd</sup>, and runs August 3-19. Performances are Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at 8pm, with a Greenshow at 7:30pm consisting of songs, dances, sword fights and parodies. Stan Hywet’s grounds open at 6pm for picnicking in a wide variety of scenic locations, and concessions are available, including wine, beer, and boxed dinners.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>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 www.ohioshakespeare.com, or by calling the box office at (330) 673-8761, open daily (except Mondays) from noon to 5pm.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoBodyText><span style='font-size:12.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:windowtext;font-weight:normal'>“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)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='text-autospace:none'><i><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center;text-autospace:none'><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'>-- End --<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></body></html>