MADISON, N.J.: The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey has announced its 2015 season, which includes two works by its namesake alongside plays by Shaw and Molnár, among others. The 2015 roster runs late May through December, with six productions on the mainstage at the F.M. Kirby Shakespeare Theatre in Madison and one summer production at an outdoor Greek amphitheatre on the campus of the College of Saint Elizabeth in Morris.
The upcoming season marks artistic director Bonnie J. Monte’s 25th anniversary with the theatre. Her contributions and leadership will be honored at theatre’s annual gala on Apr. 25.
The season begins with George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber’s comedy The Royal Family (May 27-June 21), loosely based on the Barrymore theatrical dynasty. Monte will direct.
The outdoor summer offering this year is Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost, helmed by resident director Brian B. Crowe, June 17-July 26.
On the mainstage, July 8-26, is Ferenc Molnár’s backstage romantic comedy The Guardsman, followed by Shaw’s farcical Misalliance (Aug. 5-20), to be directed by artistic associate Stephen Brown-Fried.
The fall begins with a play that features Shakespeare as a character, Bill Cain’s Equivocation, which puts the Bard and his company of actors at the center of Jacobean court intrigue and the Gunpowder Plot. It runs Sept. 16-Oct. 4.
Beginning on Oct. 14 is Wendy Kesselman’s adaptation of the Frances Goodrich/Albert Hackett chestnut, The Diary of Anne Frank, about the young Dutch girl hiding from Nazi occupation. Closing out the season on quite a different note is Shakespeare’s bawdy Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Monte, which runs into holidays (Dec. 2-27).
