Thinking Shakespeare LOVE!

The Old Globe presents
Thinking Shakespeare LOVE!
a Celebration of Love in
Shakespeare’s Plays, Poems, and Songs,
Directed and Hosted by
Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein

Featuring the 2021 Graduates of
The Old Globe and University of San Diego
Shiley Graduate Theatre Program

Two Nights Only: July 16 and 17
Under the Stars in the Outdoor
Lowell Davies Festival Theatre

PHOTO EDITORS: Photos of Barry Edelstein and the Thinking Shakespeare LOVE! cast can be found here.

SAN DIEGO (July 6, 2021) — The Old Globe continues its outdoor summer offerings as Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein directs and hosts Thinking Shakespeare LOVE!, a celebration of love in the plays, poems, and songs of Shakespeare. Edelstein will host an evening of excerpts all about the crazy, wonderful, intoxicating spirit of love that suffuses the Bard’s works. Performances will play for two nights only on July 16 and 17 at The Old Globe’s outdoor venue, the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.

Thinking Shakespeare LOVE! will be performed live by the 2021 graduates of The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. The cast features Christopher Cruz, Lily Davis, Christopher M. Ramirez, Klarissa Marie Robles, Claire Simba, Joz Vammer, and Jonathan Aaron Wilson. These seven talented, hardworking, and resilient graduates have attended online classes for 15 months of a two-year graduate program. Rehearsals begin today in person with Edelstein and will culminate with an onstage performance of Thinking Shakespeare LOVE! in front of a live audience.

“Shakespeare helped me get through the pandemic, and I owe him a debt of gratitude,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “Celebrating his beguiling, beautiful love poetry and the current of love that sweeps through his plays seems a wonderful way to thank him. Also, to continue my Thinking Shakespeare series in this way gives me a chance to thank the class of brilliant actors graduating from The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program for their resilience and optimism over the past 15 months. They will brighten our Festival stage with their abundant talent and make a memorable evening of romance, language, and song, and I look forward to sharing it with our audience.”

Thinking Shakespeare LOVE! will play in the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre at The Old Globe in San Diego’s Balboa Park (1363 Old Globe Way). The performance schedule isFriday, July 16 at 8:00 p.m. and Saturday, July 17 at 8:00 p.m. only. Tickets are available at www.TheOldGlobe.org or by phone at (619) 23-GLOBE (234-5623). Tickets prices start at $20.00.

Thinking Shakespeare LOVE! is supported by Elaine and Dave Darwin.

Major underwriting of The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program at The Old Globe is provided by Darlene Marcos Shiley.

Financial support for The Old Globe is provided by The City of San Diego.

The Theodor and Audrey Geisel Fund provides leadership support for The Old Globe’s year-round activities.

Bios and photos of all participants can be found at www.TheOldGlobe.org/Press-Room.

A joint venture of The Old Globe and the University of San Diego, the Shiley Graduate Theatre Program nationally recruits seven students each year to participate in an intensive two-year, year-round course of graduate study in classical theatre. In 1987, The Old Globe and the University of San Diego established a graduate acting program. The result has been one of the most acclaimed classical training programs in the United States, receiving hundreds of applicantions each year. It has become one of the most competitive graduate acting programs in the country. The program's graduates have made their mark in the profession. They have performed extensively on and Off Broadway, in regional theatres, in feature films, and on television. They have also founded successful theatre companies, written award-winning plays and screenplays, and performed throughout Europe and Canada. One notable graduate is Jim Parsons, the Golden Globe and Emmy Award–winning star of “The Big Bang Theory.”

The Tony Award–winning The Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional not-for-profit regional theatres. Now in its 87th year, the Globe is San Diego’s flagship performing arts institution, and it serves a vibrant community with theatre as a public good. Under the leadership of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and the Audrey S. Geisel Managing Director Timothy J. Shields, The Old Globe produces a year-round season of 16 productions of classic, contemporary, and new works on its three Balboa Park stages, including its internationally renowned Shakespeare Festival. More than 250,000 people annually attend Globe productions and participate in the theatre’s artistic and arts engagement programs. Its nationally prominent Arts Engagement Department provides an array of participatory programs that make theatre matter to more people in neighborhoods throughout the region. Humanities programs at the Globe and around the city broaden the community’s understanding of theatre art in all its forms. The Globe also boasts a range of new play development programs with professional and community-based writers, as well as the renowned The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program. Numerous world premieres—such as 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, Bright Star, The Full Monty, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!—have been developed at The Old Globe and have gone on to highly successful runs on Broadway and at regional theatres across the country.

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