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SAN DIEGO (January 19, 2021)—As the world catches glimpses of a return to normalcy and dares to imagine a time when we can once again gather together in our theatre spaces, The Old Globe will produce a hybrid of digital and in-person offerings that encompasses a broad range of thrilling theatre created by a diverse group of major talents. The Globe’s upcoming offerings will include three world premieres (two of which are Globe-commissioned); the return of Shakespeare online, on the radio, and in our outdoor theatre; and two revivals of American classics. Additionally the Globe will continue its popular online Arts Engagement TV programs and will move online for the eighth edition of the Powers New Voices Festival and the Globe’s Classical Directing Fellowship.
“Amid continuing uncertainty, the Globe is redoubling its commitment to making theatre that matters and to serving our community with work in a striking range of forms,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “Across many virtual platforms and then, when it’s safe, in person, we’re readying one of the most exciting lineups we’ve ever offered, full of local and national talent at the highest level, and rising to the challenges of this moment to create theatre that’s powerful, moving, and entertaining. Shakespeare enjoys pride of place, but alongside him are thrilling artists of this moment whose voices resonate with the cultural breadth and richness of our region. Taken together, this lineup expresses all the accomplishment and dynamism audiences have come to expect from theatre at the Globe. Our energies are pointed toward that happy day when we will reopen our doors and light our stages even more brilliantly. Until then I’m hugely proud to share this bounty of work, especially in these trying times, and certain that there’ll be more wonderful projects to announce as the months pass.”
The Old Globe kicks off the new year with the eighth annual Powers New Voices Festival, four days of readings of new plays by some of the most exciting voices writing for the American theatre today. This year’s event will be presented virtually for the first time, streaming online January 21–24, 2021 on the free virtual Hopin platform. The Festival is free to the public, but reservations are required and can be made online now at www.TheOldGlobe.org.
The Festival begins on Thursday, January 21 at 7:00 p.m. PT with Celebrating Community Voices, an evening of short works created by San Diego residents through the Globe’s arts engagement programs Community Voices and coLAB. The evening will include works by Queen Kandi Cole, KishaLynn (“KL”) Moore Elliott, Jonathan Hammond, and Thelma Virata de Castro. The readings will be directed by Freedome Bradley-Ballentine, Katherine Harroff, Gerardo Flores Tonella, and Lamar Perry.
On Friday, January 22 at 7:00 p.m. PT, the Festival continues with Fuente Ovejuna by Lope de Vega, translated and adapted by William S. Gregory and Daniel Jáquez. A classic of Spanish Golden Age literature, Fuente Ovejuna is a timeless story of honor and love brought to new life in this fresh translation. This reading is organized jointly between The Old Globe, TuYo Theatre, and the Consulate of Mexico.
On Saturday, January 23 at 7:00 p.m. PT, the Festival will present An Evening with the San Diego Black Artists Collective, produced by Karen Ann Daniels and Lamar Perry and directed by Tanika Baptiste, Karen Ann Daniels, Lamar Perry, and Delicia Turner Sonnenberg. The evening will feature works by Tanika Baptiste, Dea Hurston, Joy Yvonne Jones, Tamara McMillian, Milena (Sellers) Phillips, and Ruff Yeager, as well as a stunning adaptation of Rich Soublet II’s Black Presence photo docuseries.
The Festival wraps up on Sunday, January 24 at 7:00 p.m. PT with the Globe-commissioned Under a Baseball Sky by José Cruz González and directed by James Vásquez. From the writer of the Globe’s smash hit American Mariachi comes a story about baseball’s deep roots in the Mexican American community.
Starting Friday, February 12, 2021, just in time for Valentine’s Day weekend, the illustrious actors in The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program will expertly perform William Shakespeare’s magical comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream in an online production directed by Sam White. The production will be available to view through The Old Globe’s website and YouTube channel.
In April, in celebration of Shakespeare’s birthday and in collaboration with San Diego’s KPBS Radio 89.5, the Globe will produce a free audio revival of Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein’s acclaimed 2017 production of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, with Grantham Coleman returning in the title role. Hamlet: On the Radio will feature all of the principal performers from the 2017 production, bringing Shakespeare’s iconic play to life for radio audiences.
The spring will also see the return of The Old Globe Classical Directing Fellowship, a program of the Karen and Stuart Tanz Fellowships at The Old Globe, led by the Globe’s Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein, a leading Shakespearean scholar, author, and director. This program continues to broaden our professional artist-training work by presenting a series of techniques that the fellows will then employ in rehearsals with a company of professional actors, culminating in a private presentation. After that, all involved will debrief and broaden the conversation to some larger questions about Shakespeare, American culture, and the director’s art and life. Throughout the week, in addition to the artistic work, the fellows will meet with members of the Globe’s staff in many departments and with representatives of the larger San Diego theatre community. They will gain not only a set of specific tools to use in directing Shakespeare, but also a sense of the community in one of America’s most dynamic theatre towns. In exchange, the Globe will have the chance to begin a conversation with a group of gifted artists with so much to offer this theatre.
Arts engagement programming will resume the first week of February, including past hit programs and exciting new ones. All programs will be available on YouTube and www.TheOldGlobe.org.
New public arts engagement programming:
This spring season will premiere AETV Theatre Shorts, 10-minute-or-less mini-lessons that will feature a theatre expert sharing information they find helpful in their field. These lessons will include insights about the world of production (props, costumes, sound, lighting, and projections); specialty directing and acting advice and information; crossover features on how the world of theatre can improve other elements of life; and more!
Work on your comedic chops with Community Voices: Comedy Edition, hosted by Associate Director of Arts Engagement Katherine Harroff, who will lead participants on the path of comedic performance-based writing every Thursday at 5:30 p.m. PT.
Returning arts engagement programming:
Globe to Go, which offers teachers and parents free downloadable theatre resources for students grades K–12, will continue adding material for everyone to keep learning at home together! Visit our website for creative lesson plans and short videos.
Reflecting Shakespeare TV, in its third season, will continue to offer insightful and diverse experiences from formerly incarcerated citizens. Witness their conversations with hosts Erika Phillips, James Pillar, and Niki Martinez surrounding analysis of William Shakespeare’s texts and characters.
The Poet’s Tree will continue to feature award-winning poetry movers and shakers with host, spoken word poet, and Globe Teaching Artist Gill Sotu. Participate with weekly poetry-honing prompts and catch some live poetry every Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. PT.
Creative Youth Studio is back! Tune in to this series of professional development opportunities for youth and high school theatre enthusiasts to advance their creative and professional careers. Participants will explore audition preparation, portfolio building, writing for theatre, entrepreneurial tips, and improvisation skills in free weekly one-hour classes taught by industry experts. Join us every Wednesday at 3:30 p.m. PT.
Fridays wouldn’t be the same without the hit program Word Up! Grab your dinner and tune in every Friday night at 6:00 p.m. PT with host and Arts Engagement Programs Manager Laura Zablit to collaborate in real time with local artists and their art forms. Past episodes have featured children’s books, sonnets, hip-hop, makeup, and more!
In addition, every season, the Arts Engagement Department offers private programming to our Community Partners. Returning private online programming includes Community Voices workshops, in partnership with SouKiss Theatre for a second consecutive time; Reflecting Shakespeare, serving incarcerated justice-involved populations with reentry programs through a combination of alternative-distance learning and interactive Zoom classes with partners California State Prison, Centinela, Las Colinas Detention and Reentry Facility, San Diego County Office of Education and San Diego Probation, and Youth Empowerment San Diego; Behind the Curtain Intensive Training workshops that allow participants to gain job skills in the world of theatrical production (this pilot program begins with props and costumes); and Shakespeare in the Park, in partnership with other Balboa Park institutions, offering K–8 lessons to Title I schools.
Looking ahead, our free AXIS performing arts series will continue to offer online events, such as Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare! and Día de Muertos/Day of the Dead. Our coLAB series will continue with our fifth annual Juneteenth performance presentation, in collaboration with the George L. Stevens Senior Resource Center, to continue to deepen the Globe’s commitment to our celebration of this American holiday. These programs will all be available on our website and YouTube channel for everyone to enjoy safely at home. The calendar of upcoming events will be available soon on our website.
Our annual Pam Farr Summer Shakespeare Studio will return this year for any high school student and recent graduate who would like to dive into acting, movement, music, writing classes, and training in voice and speech, stage combat, and text. Master classes led by Globe artists and staff, many of them leaders in their respective fields, are offered during this month-long curriculum. Applications will be available on the Globe’s website in late January.
Barry Edelstein will return with new episodes of his acclaimed series on Shakespeare, his works, and how they come to thrilling life in the hands of the great artists of the Globe. Thinking Shakespeare Live: Infinite Book will look at how the language of Shakespeare made its way across four centuries from the Bard’s quill pen to the scripts our actors hold as they rehearse their work today. Like Thinking Shakespeare Live: Sonnets!, which The San Diego Union-Tribune named the “Best Theater Education Project of 2020,” this new series will be fast-paced, fun, and enlightening. Presented in four episodes this spring, Thinking Shakespeare Live: Infinite Book will be available on the Globe’s website and YouTube channel.
Humanities events continue in 2021 with the beloved series Vicki and Carl Zeiger Virtual Insights Seminars, which will provide Globe patrons with an opportunity to closely connect with past Globe artists. Associate Artistic Director Justin Waldman will interview artists in informal and illuminating presentations of ideas as they discuss their work at the Globe and across their careers. Watch these videos for free on the Globe’s website and YouTube channel.
As part of the lead up to Hamlet: On the Radio, the Globe will also offer a special series of Vicki and Carl Zeiger Virtual Insights Seminars exclusively for donors. This set of Virtual Insights Seminars, hosted by Associate Artistic Director Justin Waldman, will be dedicated to how Hamlet is brought to life and the unique perspectives of creative artists, technicians, and actors, culminating in an interview with Barry Edelstein. This series is by invitation only on Zoom.
On Book: The Old Globe’s Shakespeare Reading Group, one of the first online programs the Globe created during the COVID-19 shutdown, returns on Monday, March 1 to read and discuss more of the Bard’s timeless works. The group’s first selections for 2021 will be Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It. On Book is a free online group offering a chance to explore Shakespeare’s plays with other audience members as well as Globe artists and actors. Through live-streamed discussion meetings, as well as online question-and-answer sessions with Shakespeare scholars and actors, audiences will read and discuss Shakespeare’s plays. Guest artists will join the Globe’s Literary Manager and Dramaturg Danielle Mages Amato for an interactive exploration of the plays and how they make their way from page to stage. Last year, On Book dove into The Taming of the Shrew and Henry V while growing an engaged and thoughtful online community. This group is intended for adults ages 18 and up, though it is appropriate for enthusiastic preteens and teens.
A date for the return of live performances to The Old Globe’s Balboa Park campus will be determined by guidelines set by the State of California and the County of San Diego. When it is safe for artists and audiences to come back to our three theatres, the Globe plans to return with a combination of shows that had been postponed during 2020 and projects that had been planned for the unannounced 2020–2021 Season.
The Old Globe Shakespeare Festival will reopen the Lowell Davies Festival Theatre, the Globe’s 600-seat outdoor theatre under the stars, with director Shana Cooper’s daring and contemporary staging of William Shakespeare’s masterful comedic take on the battle of the sexes, The Taming of the Shrew, which turns everything we think about love, marriage, and gender on its head. Additionally in the Globe’s outdoor theatre, the Age of Aquarius will dawn again with Hair,the American tribal love-rock musical, with book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado and music by Galt MacDermot. Directed by James Vásquez (the Globe’s American Mariachi, Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Tiny Beautiful Things) and choreographed by Rickey Tripp (associate choreographer for Broadway’s Choir Boy, Once on This Island; appeared in Hamilton, Motown The Musical, In the Heights), this legendary rock musical, with its Grammy Award–winning score, will be the first full-scale musical produced by the Globe in its outdoor theatre in 20 years. Both The Taming of the Shrew and Hair were originally scheduled as part of The Old Globe’s 2020 Summer Season.
Indoors, a previously unannounced revival of an American classic, Trouble in Mind by Alice Childress and directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, will be joined by a Globe-commissioned world premiere musical, The Gardens of Anuncia. The musical is inspired by the life story of an icon of the American stage, Broadway legend Graciela Daniele (the Globe’s Chita Rivera: The Dancer’s Life, Broadway’s Once on This Island, Ragtime), who directs and choreographs, with book, music, and lyrics by five-time Tony Award nominee Michael John LaChiusa (the Globe’s Rain, Broadway’s The Wild Party, Marie Christine). The Gardens of Anuncia was originally scheduled as part of The Old Globe’s 2019–2020 Season. Both Trouble in Mind and The Gardens of Anuncia will be on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.
Additionally, the new slate will feature two previously unannounced world premieres: the Globe-commissioned Shutter Sisters by Mansa Ra (formerly known as Jiréh Breon Holder; Too Heavy for Your Pocket in the 2018 Powers New Voices Festival, ...what the end will be upcoming at Roundabout Theatre Company, “New Amsterdam”) and directed by Donya K. Washington (Festival Producer at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Alliance Theatre’s Beautiful Blackbird, Theatreworks USA’s Freedom Train), and El Borracho by Tony Meneses (Guadalupe in the Guest Room, The Women of Padilla, twenty50, The Hombres), directed by Edward Torres (the Globe’s Familiar, Native Gardens, Water by the Spoonful, award-winning world premiere of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity). Both plays were part of the Globe’s 2020 Powers New Voices Festival and will have their world premieres in the Globe’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.
Plans for the remaining productions postponed during 2020 (Little Women, Faceless, What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank, Dial M for Murder, and Henry V) will be announced at a later date. Subscribers and ticket holders will be contacted by The Old Globe Ticket Office and provided with options for the tickets they hold for these postponed productions.
Full show descriptions and artist bios can be found at www.TheOldGlobe.org/Press-Room.
The Powers New Voices Festival is supported by Paula and Brian Powers. The Old Globe’s New Voices Play Development Program is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Harold and Mimi Steinberg Charitable Trust. The Old Globe’s Community Voices program is supported by grants from The James Irvine Foundation and Subaru of El Cajon. The James Irvine Foundation also supports the Globe's coLAB program. Fuente Ovejuna is supported by The Joseph Cohen and Martha Farish New Play Development Fund. The Old Globe's digital programs are supported in part by the Peggy and Robert Matthews Foundation.
Private funding for the Master of Fine Arts in Theatre program has been contributed through a generous endowment established by Donald and Darlene Shiley. Additional support for the program is provided by Dorothy Brown Endowment Fund and Louis Yager Cantwell Foundation.
Hamlet: On the Radio on KPBS is supported in part by Diane and John Berol, Karen and Donald Cohn, Jean and Gary Shekhter Fund for Classic Theatre, Darlene Marcos Shiley, in memory of Donald Shiley, The Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Fund, and the Estate of Jordine Von Wantoch. The artist sponsor for Grantham Coleman as Hamlet is Ann Davies.
Karen and Stuart Tanz generously support fellowship programs for the development of theatre artists.
Arts engagement programs at The Old Globe are supported in part by The James Irvine Foundation. Digital programs are supported in part by the Peggy and Robert Matthews Foundation. The Old Globe’s Teaching Artists are supported by Ann Davies Fund for Teaching Artists. Community Voices is supported in part by Subaru of El Cajon. Reflecting Shakespeare TV is supported in part by California Arts Council. Pamela Farr and Buford Alexander are the lead sponsors of the Pam Farr Summer Shakespeare Studio.
Thinking Shakespeare Live! initiatives are supported in part by Elaine and Dave Darwin. Vicki and Carl Zeiger generously support Insights Seminars at The Old Globe.
The Taming of the Shrew is generously supported by production sponsors Diane and John Berol, Karen and Donald Cohn, Jean and Gary Shekhter Fund for Classic Theatre, Darlene Marcos Shiley, in memory of Donald Shiley, and The Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Fund. Hair is generously supported by production sponsors Terry Atkinson and Kathy Taylor, Nikki and Ben Clay, Karen and Donald Cohn, Pamela Farr and Buford Alexander, Paula and Brian Powers, and Vicki and Carl Zeiger. The Gardens of Anuncia is supported by principal underwriters Paula and Brian Powers; lead underwriters Diane and John Berol, The Conrad Prebys Foundation, and The Ted and Mary Jo Shen Charitable Gift Fund; underwriters Terry Atkinson and Kathy Taylor, Hal and Pam Fuson, and Pamela Farr and Buford Alexander; with additional support from Peter Cooper and Erik Matwijkow and Sue and Edward “Duff” Sanderson. Production sponsors for The Gardens of Anuncia include HM Electronics, Inc. and Univision. Graciela Daniele is sponsored by Jeanette Stevens, and Michael John LaChiusa is sponsored by Jordine Von Wantoch in memoriam.
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.
Note: All in-person Globe productions and events have been postponed until further notice; all dates are subject to change. In the meantime, the Globe develops and presents a wide array of free online programs to continue reaching the San Diego community. These currently include a free commissioned short-plays project Play At Home and The Old Globe Coloring Book. Recent arts engagement programs include the exploration of modern poetry The Poet’s Tree; Voces de la Comunidad, the Spanish-language version of Community Voices, our popular playwriting program; collaborative Mad Libs–style program Word Up!; and Creative Youth Studio, a series of professional development opportunities for youth and high-school theatre enthusiasts; new middle school and high school Globe to Go focused resources, a part of School in the Park, which offers free downloadable K–5 resources for teaching; season 2 of Reflecting Shakespeare TV, a digital version of the transformative initiative offered at prisons; and Behind the Curtain: Art of Protest.
Programs and videos archived on our website at www.TheOldGlobe.org and on our YouTube channel, available for viewing at any time from the comfort of your home, including the world premiere of Bill Irwin’s In-Zoom; On Book: The Old Globe’s Shakespeare Reading Group; outreach from familiar Globe artists in Act Breaks and Flashbacks; Soap It Up with students from The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program; and Barry Edelstein’s hit presentation Thinking Shakespeare Live! and his series Thinking Shakespeare Live: Sonnets! Archived arts engagement programs include the Community Voices playwriting workshop; Behind the Curtain and its offshoots, the Spanish-language Detrás del Telón and Behind the Curtain: Technical Assistance forum; check-in program with Globe-commissioned writers Playwrights Unstuck; The Living Room Play Workshop; and season 1 of Reflecting Shakespeare TV.
Follow us at www.TheOldGlobe.org for schedules and updates!
An updated guide to our free online theatre programs,
as well as videos of those programs, are available here.
You can also watch our videos on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/user/TheOldGlobe.
Please contact Public Relations Associate Lucía Serrano
for high-res visuals for media usage, or visit https://bit.ly/3eXTZyE.
PHOTO EDITORS: Digital images of The Old Globe’s productions are available at www.theoldglobe.org/press-room.
The Tony Award–winning The Old Globe is one of the country’s leading professional not-for-profit regional theatres. Now in its 85th 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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THE OLD GLOBE 2021 DIGITAL SEASON
2021 Powers New Voices Festival
Celebrating Community Voices
Works by by Queen Kandi Cole, KishaLynn (“KL”) Moore Elliott, Jonathan Hammond, and Thelma Virata de Castro
Directed by Freedome Bradley-Ballentine, Katherine Harroff, Gerardo Flores Tonella, and Lamar Perry
Thursday, January 21 at 7:00 p.m.
The Festival begins with Celebrating Community Voices, an evening of short works created by San Diego residents through the Globe’s arts engagement programs Community Voices and coLAB. These initiatives are play-development workshops that provide professional theatre-making skills to select San Diego communities. This evening is a curated collection of some of the best short scripts developed in these programs.
Fuente Ovejuna
By Lope de Vega
Translated and adapted by William S. Gregory and Daniel Jáquez
Friday, January 22 at 7:00 p.m.
The Festival continues with Fuente Ovejuna, a timeless story of honor and love brought to new life in this fresh translation. Oppressed by a tyrannical leader, a group of townspeople band together to claim justice, dignity, and freedom for their town by any means necessary. Based on the true story of an uprising in a southern Spanish town in 1477, Fuente Ovejuna bristles with action, humor, tragedy, and humanity and has a long and rich production history over the centuries. This reading is organized jointly between The Old Globe, TuYo Theatre, and the Consulate of Mexico. The Cultural Department of the Consulate General of Mexico has as one of its objectives the promotion of cultural and artistic exchanges between Mexico and the United States as a tool for dialogue, understanding, and cooperation. Fuente Ovejuna encourages reflection and discussion of relevant issues for the binational border community.
An Evening with the San Diego Black Artists Collective
Works by Tanika Baptiste, Dea Hurston, Joy Yvonne Jones, Tamara McMillian, Milena (Sellers) Phillips, Rich Soublet II, and Ruff Yeager
Produced by Karen Ann Daniels and Lamar Perry
Directed by Tanika Baptiste, Karen Ann Daniels, Lamar Perry, and Delicia Turner Sonnenberg
Saturday, January 23 at 7:00 p.m.
The Festival continues with An Evening with the San Diego Black Artists Collective. The evening will feature works by thrilling local writers, as well as a stunning adaptation of Rich Soublet II’s Black Presence photo docuseries. The Globe’s commitment to social justice calls on us to amplify the voices of San Diego's BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) artists by making space on all of our platforms for this exciting and worthy work. This evening, conceived, produced, and featuring members of the SDBAC, is our first foray into these important and necessary collaborations.
A Globe-commissioned new play
Under a Baseball Sky
By José Cruz González
Directed by James Vásquez
Sunday, January 24 at 7:00 p.m.
The Festival wraps up on with the Globe-commissioned Under a Baseball Sky. From the writer of the Globe’s smash hit American Mariachi comes a story about baseball’s deep roots in the Mexican American community. When troublemaker Teo is assigned to clean up a vacant lot belonging to the elderly Elí O’Reilly, these two unlikely friends form a bond forged in history and America’s pastime. Inspired by the playwright’s research into the history of San Diego’s Logan Heights neighborhood, Under a Baseball Sky celebrates communities and individuals coming together to find hope, healing, and love.
Additional Online Programming
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Sam White
Begins February 12, 2021
The Old Globe and University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program’s students use all the tools of streaming theatre to bring the Bard’s most popular comedy directly to your screen! Filled with music, humor, and magnificent poetry, this dream unfolds in an enchanted forest where fairies play tricks on unsuspecting lovers, and bumbling actors are transformed beyond their wildest imaginings. Add to this a secret potion that grants love at first sight, and anything can—and does—happen! Ingenious director Sam White transports the action to industrial America circa 1940, where the assembly line is as magical as the woods of Athens.
The Old Globe production of
Hamlet: On the Radio
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Barry Edelstein
Dates TBA
Revenge thriller, ghost story, psychological drama, political epic, family saga. Packed with unforgettable characters, theatrical masterstrokes, and world-famous lines, Hamlet is one of the greatest plays ever written. Barry Edelstein’s 2017 staging of Shakespeare’s masterpiece was a smash hit on the Globe’s outdoor stage. Now the cast of that heralded production returns for an all-audio version that will transport you straight to Denmark’s haunted Elsinore castle.
THE OLD GLOBE’S RETURN-TO-CAMPUS SEASON
Lowell Davies Festival Theatre
The Taming of the Shrew
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Shana Cooper
Dates TBA
“Come on, and kiss me, Kate.”
Can anyone keep up with the brash and headstrong Katherine? The dashing adventurer Petruchio thinks he’s the man for the job. Two of the sexiest spirits in all of world theatre set off sparks in a clash of wills that is as hilarious as it is outrageous. Shakespeare’s masterful comedic take on the battle of the sexes turns everything we think about love, marriage, and gender on its head. Director Shana Cooper brings to the Globe her daring and contemporary staging, which The New York Times praised as “an exhilarating new way to look at the comedy through modern eyes,” and The Wall Street Journal’s theatre critic called “the best Shrew I’ve ever reviewed.”
Hair
The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical
Book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado
Music by Galt MacDermot
Directed by James Vásquez
Choreography by Rickey Tripp
Dates TBA
The Age of Aquarius dawns again! It’s the Summer of Love, and a group of young Americans are looking to change the world! Directed by James Vásquez (The Old Globe’s American Mariachi and Tiny Beautiful Things), this legendary rock musical bursts onto the outdoor stage with its Grammy Award–winning score, featuring iconic hits such as “Let the Sunshine In,” “Good Morning Starshine,” and the exuberant title song. Make love, not war!—and celebrate “harmony and understanding” with Broadway’s first great rock musical.
For mature audiences. Contains brief nudity.
Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage, Old Globe Theatre, Conrad Prebys Theatre Center
Trouble in Mind
By Alice Childress
Directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg
Dates TBA
A thrilling new production of a too-often neglected American classic. New York, 1955. A leading Black actress and a multiracial cast rehearse a challenging new Broadway play set in the South. Backstage rivalries and showbiz egos cause excitement of their own, but artistic differences between the cast and the white director soon bubble to the surface, revealing the truths that American drama covers over and the ways in which even well-meaning people can harm others under the guise of helping. The New York Times recently called Alice Childress’s groundbreaking Trouble in Mind “a rich, unsettling play that lingers in one’s memory long after its conclusion.”
Contains strong language.
A Globe-commissioned world premiere musical
The Gardens of Anuncia
Book, music, and lyrics by Michael John LaChiusa
Directed and choreographed by Graciela Daniele
Dates TBA
A Globe-commissioned world premiere musical by five-time Tony Award nominee Michael John LaChiusa. The Gardens of Anuncia is inspired by the life story of an icon of the American stage who directs and choreographs the show at the Globe: Broadway legend Graciela Daniele. Anuncia tends the garden of her country house as she reflects on her life, looking back on her girlhood in Juan Perón’s Argentina and paying homage to the family of women whose sacrifices allowed her to become an artist. This funny, poignant, and beautiful musical features a beguilingly romantic and tango-infused score filled with the exuberant sounds of women reveling in the joys of being alive.
Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, Conrad Prebys Theatre Center
World premiere
A Globe-commissioned world premiere
Shutter Sisters
By Mansa Ra (formerly known as Jiréh Breon Holder)
Directed by Donya K. Washington
Dates TBA
A Globe-commissioned world premiere that was developed in the 2020 Powers New Voices Festival. Shutter Sisters tells the story of two women living parallel lives on the hardest days of their lives. A white woman named Michael attends her adopted mother’s funeral, while a Black woman named Mykal kicks her adult daughter out of her home. A heartfelt and surprising journey through womanhood, identity, and what it means to belong.
World premiere
El Borracho
By Tony Meneses
Directed by Edward Torres
Dates TBA
Raul is ill. He drinks, because he always drinks, just like “el borracho” on the lotería card. In his final months, Raul is forced to move in with his ex-wife Alma, who now has to care for the man she thought she’d never have to see again, and his son David, who has secrets he’s longing to share. Developed as part of the Globe’s 2020 Powers New Voices Festival, the world premiere of Tony Meneses’s compelling tragicomedy follows one family’s journey to come together so they can finally say goodbye.
Contains strong language.
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