WASHINGTON, D.C.: Folger Theatre has announced its 2015-16 season, celebrating the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with plays, lectures and concerts.
To kick off the season is Oregon Shakespeare Festival‘s production of Shakepeare’s Pericles (Nov. 13–Dec. 20), directed by Joseph Haj with live music compositions by Jack Herrick. Wayne T. Carr will star.
Next will be Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Jan. 26–March 6, 2016). Aaron Posner will direct, and Holly Twyford and Erin Weaver will star.
Also part of the season is the East Coast premiere of Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor’s William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (April 21–May 8, 2016), performed by the Reduced Shakespeare Company. The play tells of a fictional lost play of Shakespeare’s, full of wordplay and punning.
Following will be the world premiere of Aaron Posner’s District Merchants (May 31–July 3, 2016), a retelling of Shakepeare’s The Merchant of Venice. Michael John Garcés will direct.
The season also includes an offering for the citywide Women’s Voices Theater Festival: Karin Coonrod’s texts&beheadings/ElizabethR (Sept. 19–Oct. 4), a new play exploring the life and language of Elizabeth I through her personal letters. The limited engagement is produced by Compagnia de’ Colombari. Coonrod will direct.
The First Folio Tour of 2016 will take the original 1623 First Folio, a treasured early collection of Shakespeare’s plays, to every state in the U.S., as well as Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia. Accompanying the book will be a production of Gravedigger’s Tale, an interactive play based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, starring Louis Butelli.
Folger Theatre will also collaborate with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra for three performances of Romeo and Juliet (Oct. 16–18), directed by Edward Berkeley.
