The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0275 Thursday, 5 April 2007
From: John F. Andrews <This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.>
Date: Wednesday, 4 Apr 2007 14:53:58 -0400
Subject: Shakespeare Month in Washington
Now that we're in the heart of what is sometimes referred to as
"Shakespeare Month," we're pleased to remind you once again of events
that relate to the playwright's special place in the history and culture
of America's capital city. Below are highlights from ESU Washington's
Calendar page (www.esuwdc.org/calendar.html), among them programs with
performers Richard Clifford, Sir Derek Jacobi, Lynn Redgrave, Gary
Sloan, and director Michael Kahn.
Please let us know if you'd like a copy of the April issue of ESU News &
Announcements, where you'll find a Page 2 story about our March 5
Shakespeare Competition for the National Capital Region. We'll be happy
to dispatch a PDF version.
Hoping to see you soon, and encouraging you to share this information
with others who might find it of interest,
With many thanks,
John Andrews
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Michael Kahn on 'Shakespeare in Washington'
THURSDAY, APRIL 5
Cash-Bar Reception 11:30 a.m., Luncheon 12:30 p.m., Program 1:00 p.m.
1526 New Hampshire Avenue NW
ESU Members, $25; Others, $30; Program Only, $10
We're privileged to join the Woman's National Democratic Club in a
gathering with one of our nation's most esteemed producers and
directors. Michael Kahn has garnered accolades on Broadway and at the
New York Shakespeare Festival and has overseen such artistic enterprises
as the American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut, and the
McCarter Theatre in Princeton, New Jersey. During his four decades in
Lincoln Center at the Juilliard School's Drama Division, which he helped
establish in 1968 and which he headed until a few months ago, Mr. Kahn
has trained or worked with such actors as William Hurt, Harvey Keitel,
Kevin Kline, Laura Linney, Patti LuPone, Kelly McGillis, Christopher
Reeve, and Robin Williams. Meanwhile, since his arrival in the Nation's
Capital in 1986 as artistic director of what is now known as the
Shakespeare Theatre Company, Mr. Kahn has transformed what had been a
small, embattled troupe at the Folger Library into an organization that
periodicals like The Economist and The Wall Street Journal have
described as one of the finest classical ensembles in the world. As that
institution prepares to occupy its magnificant new home at the Harman
Center for the Arts, Mr. Kahn is teaming up with Michael Kaiser,
President of the Kennedy Center, to oversee a spectacular, unprecedented
commemoration of Shakespeare in Washington, a six-month festival that
involves more than seventy participating institutions.
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Gary Sloan Revives 'The Ghosts of Edwin Booth'
MONDAY, APRIL 9, and MONDAY, APRIL 16, at 7:00 p.m.
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY - Nan Tucker McEvoy Auditorium
Admission Free, but Please Call (202) 275-0570 to Reserve Seats
As part of the Smithsonian Institution's contribution to this spring's
multifaceted Shakespeare in Washington festival, the National Portrait
Gallery (at the corner of 8th and F Streets NW, near the Gallery Place
stop on Metro) is hosting a series of Monday night performances by one
of the most talented actors of our day. Gary Sloan will be known to
local audiences for his distinguished work at such venues as Arena
Stage, the Folger Theatre, the Shakespeare Theatre Company, and Studio
Theatre. But he is also familiar to playgoers elsewhere for his roles at
the Actors Theatre of Louisville, the Alley Theatre in Houston, the
Cincinnati Playhouse in Ohio, the Long Wharf Theatre in New Haven, and
the Roundabout Theatre in New York. For this occasion Mr. Sloan is
resurrecting The Haunted Prince. A deeply conflicted man whose brother
assassinated President Lincoln, Edwin Booth triumphed over adversity to
become the greatest dramatic artist in 19th-century America. Drawing on
a variety of archival materials, and enacting a script that has been
devised by the presenter in association with his wife Christie Brown and
director Stephen Fried, Mr. Sloan has produced a show that will remind
attendees of how significant Shakespeare has always been, not only in
our Nation's Capital, but in every hamlet of this "brave New World." For
more information, see the National Portrait Gallery's description of
this fascinating program.
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Folger Consort Performs Purcell's 'Fairy Queen'
SUNDAY, APRIL 15, at 7:30 p.m.
MUSIC CENTER AT STRATHMORE
5301 Tuckerman Lane in North Bethesda (Grosvenor stop on Metro's Red Line)
Tickets $35-65 - To Order, Visit www.strathmore.org or Call (301) 581-5100
In one of the highlights of this spring's Shakespeare in Washington
festival, the Folger Consort is drawing its 30th season to a grand
finale with a lustrous performance of Henry Purcell's The Fairy Queen, a
magical 1691 semi-opera that derives from A Midsummer Night's Dream. For
this presentation, the ensemble has arranged for a period orchestra and
a stellar cast of virtuoso voices, among them Rosa Lamoreaux, Drew
Minter, Mark Bleeke, and Francois Loup. To render the text of
Shakespeare's comedy, the Consort is pleased to be featuring special
guest performances by Richard Clifford, Sir Derek Jacobi, and Lynn
Redgrave. The four programs scheduled for the Folger's Elizabethan
Theatre between Friday evening, April 13, and Sunday afternoon, April
15, have been sold out for weeks, but seats remain available for this
culminating event in what has been described as one of the most resonant
concert halls in America.
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Shakespearean Films at AFI's Silver Theatre
SATURDAY-SUNDAY, APRIL 21-22 and APRIL 28-29
AFI SILVER THEATRE AND CULTURAL CENTER
8633 Colesville Road in Silver Spring
Admission $9.25 ($7.50 for ESU and Shakespeare Guild Members)
As part of the Smithsonian Institution's contribution to this spring's
multifaceted Shakespeare in Washington festival, the AFI Silver Theatre
and Culture Center is presenting films with Bardic themes. On Saturday,
April 21, for example, you can see Akira Kurosawa's Ran, an acclaimed
Japanese adaptation of King Lear. A week later, on Saturday, April 28,
you can see Shakespeare Behind Bars, an inspiring and prize-winning PBS
documentary about the work a director named Curt Tofteland has been
doing with convicts in a maximum-security prison in Kentucky. The AFI is
kindly extending a $1.75 discount on these features to those who
identify themselves as constituents of either the English-Speaking Union
or the Shakespeare Guild. For details about these and other attractions
at the American Film Institute's beautiful Silver Spring facility,
please visit the cinema's Shakespeare page.
_________________________________
John F. Andrews, OBE
Executive Director, ESU Washington
President, The Shakespeare Guild
1604 New Hampshire Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20009-2512
Phone 202 234 4602 Fax 202 234 4639
http://www.esuwdc.org This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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