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PHOTO EDITORS: Photos of past events can be found here.
SAN DIEGO (April 5, 2022)—The Old Globe invites people of all ages from San Diego and beyond to join us once again, and back in person, to celebrate our resident playwright William Shakespeare with cupcakes and more with our annual Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare! on Saturday, April 16 from 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the Globe’s outdoor Copley Plaza in Balboa Park. This family-friendly event will work as an entry point for audiences to get acquainted with a brand new and exciting offering: The H6 EPIC Workshop Series, in which general audiences will be able to connect and get involved with the Globe’s Henry 6 production prior to its summer 2023 run. During this AXIS event, attendees will experience the magic of Henry 6 by familiarizing with the play’s themes through many fun activities and workshops.
More information on how to register for the Workshop Series will be shared at the event or you can register now on TheOldGlobe.org.
“After two years of not meeting in person, it will be great to gather once again to dress up, cross swords, and blow out candles for our resident playwright,” stated Associate Artistic Director and Director of Arts Engagement Freedome Bradley-Ballentine. “Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare! was one of our first AXIS events ever, dating back all the way to 2016. It has allowed us to come together and celebrate not only the words and works of a person who gave so much, but each other, as it has offered a time to safely congregate, have fun, and embrace our shared humanity.”
This event will feature various activities for everyone to enjoy! Delight in the ambient music by the Brandon Cerquedo Band; participate in an Elizabethan dance workshop with Monique Gaffney; experience a Henry 6 puppet show by Gaston Morineau; see a Word Up! sonnet performance with Ric Scales and other San Diego artists; take part in a Henry 6fight choreography workshop with Ben Cole; and join in the fun with the crafty workshops of Shakespearian ruffs and Henry 6 roses. There will also be an exciting sonnet writing competition! Apply by Tuesday, April 12 and send your best original sonnet to AEInfo@TheOldGlobe.org for the opportunity to win cash prizes, show tickets, or t-shirts. Bring a friend and enjoy a birthday cupcake and photo opportunities throughout!
About AXIS: Realizing our commitment to making theatre matter to more people, AXIS offers free cultural programs on the Globe’s Copley Plaza, led by local artists and craftspeople. The Globe’s unique physical location—and now our social media platforms—are participatory art venues where we make opportunities for connectivity and creative placemaking. AXIS is an effort to broaden our concept of audience by encompassing diverse, multigenerational constituencies from communities across San Diego County.
Henry 6 is made possible by a generous grant from The Roy Cockrum Foundation. The Old Globe’s arts engagement programs are supported by Price Philanthropies, Qualcomm, U.S. Bank, and Viasat, with additional support by La Jolla Kiwanis Foundation. Globe Teaching Artists are supported by the Ann Davies Fund for Teaching Artists. Financial support 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.
For the full press release, click here! For more on Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare!, click here! For the AXIS press page, click here!
Photo: Happy Birthday, Mr. Shakespeare!, 2019. Photo by Rich Soublet II.
PHOTO EDITORS: Photos of The Old Globe can be found here.
SAN DIEGO (April 1, 2022) —The Old Globe announced today it will present an ambitious, large-scale project including a new two-play adaptation of Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III, together with a yearlong program of citywide arts engagement and humanities events. Noted Shakespearean director and Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein adapts and directs Henry 6, which will be presented as part of the theatre’s 2023 Season and will be the centerpiece of the 2023 Summer Shakespeare Festival in the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre. The production will mark the Globe’s completion of the Bard’s canon. In celebration of this milestone, The Old Globe, one of the country’s leading Shakespeare theatres, will present an array of free, citywide arts engagement and humanities events leading up to and accompanying Henry 6. The theatre will also offer reduced-price and no-cost tickets to maximize access for San Diegans. Henry 6 will include opportunities for interested San Diegans to participate in the making of the production.
The three Henry VI plays are among Shakespeare’s earliest. They depict the Wars of the Roses, a decades-long civil war fought in early-modern England between the York and Lancaster dynasties. For Henry 6, Edelstein has condensed the three plays into two, highlighting the thrilling episodic nature of the story, the vivid characters whose actions drive events, and their single-minded quests for power at any cost. Shakespeare’s plays argue that power divorced from values leads to chaos, violence, and anarchy, and as always, he explores vast national themes by dramatizing their most personal and human impacts. Edelstein’s adaptations include all the great language, characters, spectacle, battles, and sweeping crowd scenes that make the three Shakespeare plays so memorable, while streamlining their stories and focusing their often sprawling narrative.
“The Old Globe is one of North America’s great Shakespeare companies, and in its 87 years it has produced almost every Shakespeare play, some many times,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “But three plays have remained undone: Henry VI, Parts I, II, and III. Over the past two years I’ve had the privilege to adapt these three plays into two and to conceive a production of them that embraces their full sweep, from drama to comedy, from the personal to the political, and from the intimate to the epic. Henry 6 will be a work of professional Shakespeare at the high level Globe audiences have come to expect, but it will also weave our nationally renowned arts engagement programming into our work in new ways, as community members participate in the making of the show throughout every part of the process. This will be a grand adventure for the Globe and me, and I’m thrilled to share it with San Diego.”
Henry 6 is made possible by a generous grant from The Roy Cockrum Foundation. The Old Globe’s arts engagement programs are supported by Price Philanthropies, Qualcomm, U.S. Bank, and Viasat, with additional support by La Jolla Kiwanis Foundation. Globe Teaching Artists are supported by the Ann Davies Fund for Teaching Artists. Financial support 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.
For the full press release, click here! For more information on The H6 EPIC Workshop Series, click here! For the Henry 6 press page, click here!
PHOTO EDITORS: Photos of the Globe’s production of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ can be found here.
SAN DIEGO (March 16, 2022) — The Old Globe is thrilled to announce the cast and creative team for the Broadway-bound musical Bob Fosse’s Dancin’, with choreography by Bob Fosse and direction and musical staging by Tony Award–winning choreographer Wayne Cilento (Broadway’s Wicked and The Who’s Tommy). The original Broadway production was created, directed, and choreographed by Bob Fosse. Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ is presented by The Old Globe, produced in cooperation with Nicole Fosse and by special arrangement with Joey Parnes. Rehearsals are currently underway for the six-week limited engagement. Performances begin April 19 and run to May 29, 2022 with the opening on Thursday, April 28. Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ will play on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Tickets are now on sale and available at www.TheOldGlobe.org.
Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ is Fosse’s full-throated, full-bodied celebration of the art form he loved, practiced, and changed forever. His hit musical masterpiece is reimagined by director Wayne Cilento, who starred in the original Broadway production of Dancin’ and istransforming the show’s original vision for 21st-century audiences. Dancin’brims with Fosse’s warmth, emotion, color, and endlessly influential style rarely seen in modern interpretations of his work. Featuring an eclectic score that spans a multitude of musical genres and an extraordinary cast of Broadway’s most accomplished dancers, Dancin’ delivers the quintessential Broadway experience for Fosse fans and first-timers alike. You’ve never seen Dancin’like this.
“Bob Fosse was a transformational figure in the musical theatre, and his innovations revolutionized dance on the Broadway stage and on film,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “One of his greatest works, Dancin’, showcased everything that was breathtaking and unique about his vision. Now the brilliant Wayne Cilento, one of Fosse’s heirs and himself a Broadway treasure, revitalizes and reanimates this classic show for our moment and for the 21st century. Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ is a jolt that will supercharge the Globe and our audiences as we boldly step forward—as we dance forward—from the two challenging years of the pandemic. It is a viscerally exciting piece of theatre, with stagecraft as colorful and rich as its remarkable choreography, and the dancer-singer-actors Wayne has brought to San Diego are quite simply wonders to behold. This show is a bold statement about the joy and delight that are unique to the theatre, and I’m honored and truly happy to bring it to our city.”
The ensemble of principal cast members for Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ includes Ioana Alfonso (Broadway’s Wicked), Yeman Brown (Broadway’s Jagged Little Pill), Peter John Chursin (Broadway’s Wicked), Dylis Croman (Broadway’s Chicago), Tony d’Alelio (Off Broadway’s This Ain’t No Disco), Jōvan Dansberry (Broadway’s King Kong), Karli Dinardo (Broadway’s Moulin Rouge!), Ashley Blair Fitzgerald (Broadway’s The Cher Show), Jacob Guzman (Broadway’s West Side Story), Manuel Herrera (Broadway’s Wicked), Gabriel Hyman (Broadway’s King Kong), Kolton Krouse (Broadway’s Cats), Mattie Love (Broadway’s Wicked), Krystal Mackie (national tour of Hamilton), Yani Marin (Broadway’s Wicked), Nando Morland (Broadway’s West Side Story), Khori Michelle Petinaud (Broadway’s Aladdin), Ida Saki (Warner Bros.’ In the Heights), Michaeljon Slinger (Broadway’s Hello, Dolly!), and Ron Todorowski (Broadway’s Finding Neverland).
In addition to Bob Fosse and Wayne Cilento, the creative team for the Broadway-bound production of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ includes scenic design by Robert Brill; costume design by Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung; lighting design by David Grill; sound design by Peter Hylenski; projection design by Finn Ross; music supervision, orchestrations, incidental music, and vocal arrangements by Jim Abbott; music direction by Darryl Archibald; dance arrangements and additional music by David Dabbon; casting by Tara Rubin Casting; production stage manager Beverly Jenkins; Mr. Fosse’s choreography reproduced by Christine Colby Jacques; associate direction/musical staging and additional choreographic reconstruction by Corinne McFadden Herrera; and text consultant and additional material by Kirsten Childs.
Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ is supported by production sponsors Terry Atkinson and Kathy Taylor, Elizabeth Cushman, Ann Davies, Pamela Farr and Buford Alexander, Dee E. Silver, M.D., United, Pamela J. Wagner and Hans Tegebo, and The Estate of Carolyn Yorston-Wellcome and artist sponsors Gail and Doug Hutcheson (for scenic designer Robert Brill), Philip and Margarita Wilkinson (for director Wayne Cilento), and U.S. Bank (for costume designers Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung). 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.
Visit the Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ Broadway social media channels @DancinBway for additional information.
For the full press release, click here! To buy tickets to Bob Fosse's Dancin', click here! For the press page for Bob Fosse's Dancin', click here!
SAN DIEGO (March 14, 2022)—The Old Globe brings back Word Up!, part of the AXIS free performing arts series, to The Old Globe’s outdoor Copley Plaza in beautiful Balboa Park!
Word Up! is a free, fun, festive word-based collaboration between audience and artist, hosted by Laura Zee. This Mad Libs–style communal storytelling will feature new performing artists and art mediums every time, as well as special community guests from around San Diego. More of a gathering than a show or a class, Word Up! is a low-pressure opportunity for community members to connect with each other and with a new performing art medium.
“There are so many artists and community figures around San Diego and Tijuana who are already beloved, already well known among the community, and already making a meaningful impact,” shares host and program creator Laura Zee. “Word Up! has been an opportunity to welcome them onto a Globe stage, collaborate among artists and audience members alike, and invite more people to connect to them and their work. It’s an opportunity to have communal conversations led by artists, and it’s been a huge honor for the Globe—and for me—to connect with so many remarkable community members.”
For the full press release, click here! For more on upcoming Word Up! events, click here! For the AXIS events press page, click here!
SAN DIEGO (February 28, 2022)—The Old Globe’s Annual Meeting was held on Monday, February 7, 2022 on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Outgoing Board Chair Ann Davies welcomed the members of The Old Globe Board of Directors along with donors, subscribers, and guests, and announced the newly elected Directors serving three-year terms. Globe senior staff members presented highlights of the 2021 fiscal year, and Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein and Audrey S. Geisel Managing Director Timothy J. Shields spoke about the future of the Globe and its place in the San Diego community.
For the full press release, click here!
SAN DIEGO (February 14, 2022) — The Old Globe announced today the four-member cohort for the 2022 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 teacher, author, and director. Jennifer Chang (Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award winner for Best Direction for the Los Angeles premiere of Vietgone by Qui Nguyen), Kareem Fahmy (upcoming directing projects this season with The Juilliard School, Pioneer Theatre Company, Contemporary American Theater Festival), Manoel Felciano (The Cherry Orchard(s), Chay Yew’s A Winter People and Regina Taylor’s Magnolia at Columbia), and Tai Thompson (The Dark Star from Harlem: The Spectacular Rise of Josephine Baker for La MaMa, which captured five of the eight VIV Awards it was nominated for on New York’s Grand Night for Black Theatre) will participate in the third year of this series of workshops on Shakespearean directing. The workshops will be held at the Globe from Monday, February 14 to Saturday, February 19, 2022.
The Classical Directing Fellowship focuses on Shakespeare’s text, how it is put together, and how it works in the imaginations and voices of American actors. In these seminars, Edelstein presents a series of techniques that the fellows then employ in rehearsals with a company of professional actors. The work culminates in a private presentation. After that, all involved debrief and broaden the conversation to larger questions about Shakespeare, American culture, and the director’s art and life. Throughout the week, in addition to the artistic work, fellows meet with members of the Globe’s staff in many departments to deepen knowledge of how a classically oriented theatre brings plays to life.
“Shakespeare is the Globe’s house writer. We regularly produce four of his plays every year, and his works are also central to many of the nearly 20 participatory art-making programs run by our Arts Engagement Department,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “This much work year after year demands a large number of skilled directors. That’s where our wonderful Classical Directing Fellowship comes in. We think that we can make a contribution not only to our own work but also to the field at large by expanding the ranks of exciting Shakespeareans making theatre at this level, and this Fellowship is an investment to that end. The eight gifted directors who’ve come through it thus far are directing Shakespeare at the Globe and on stages all over the country, and I know that this year’s amazing group of talents will do the same. The Globe and I are proud to deepen our commitment to the next generation of American theatrical talent, and we’re grateful to Karen and Stuart Tanz for their support.”
For the full press release, click here! For the Classical Directing Fellowship press page, click here!
SAN DIEGO (February 1, 2022) — The Old Globe announced today it has received a $2 million gift from longtime Globe supporters and philanthropists Paula and Brian Powers to create the Powers New Works Fund. The transformative gift was made to support new play development at The Old Globe and is in addition to the couple’s previous contributions supporting the organization’s general operating fund and annual Powers New Voices Festival. The Powers New Works Fund is intended to be spent over 10 years, enabling the Globe to build on its already significant new play development programs, cementing the Globe’s reputation as a national leader in the creation and presentation of new works by American playwrights.
The Old Globe will use the funds to advance the theatre’s new work programs and activities, including the continuation of the annual Powers New Voices Festival, commissions of playwrights, developmental readings and workshops of new works, production of digital works, residencies at the Globe for playwrights, and the staffing and administration of the newly created Department of New Plays and Dramaturgy.
“I’m humbled and excited to celebrate this major gift from San Diego philanthropists Paula and Brian Powers that will transform the Globe’s work on new writing for the American stage,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “The Powers have been stalwart supporters of the Globe for years, and we’re proud to have Paula on our Board of Directors. They’ve been demonstrating their commitment to the importance of new writing through their namesake Powers New Voices Festival, our annual week of public presentations of new plays. Now they have provided jet fuel to our efforts in the form of this extraordinary gift. The not-for-profit arts sector cannot do its work without the civic-minded generosity of leading philanthropists, and with their largesse, Paula and Brian Powers, already indispensable to the cultural life of San Diego, take pride of place as shining stars in the constellation of funders who make our city—and the Globe—as spectacular as they are. Their gift will ensure a bright future for this art form, and we are deeply grateful.”
“Through our involvement with the New Voices Festival, we saw how many steps a new play goes through on its way to full performance—from script sourcing and play commissions to script development, readings, and workshops. The Powers New Works Fund will provide the Globe with additional resources to support and expand this effort to bring the best new plays to the stage,” said longtime Globe supporters Paula and Brian Powers.
For the full press release, click here! For the Powers New Works Fund press page, click here!
Photo: Paula and Brian Powers.
SAN DIEGO (January 28, 2022) — The Old Globe announced today that it will present On Beckett, conceived and performed by Bill Irwin (Broadway’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, 2005 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play; Waiting for Godot), as part of its 2022 Season. The critically acclaimed production, which explores the works of Samuel Beckett, will play for six performances only on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage in the Old Globe Theatre, part of the Globe’s Conrad Prebys Theatre Center. Performances begin July 14 and run to July 17, 2022, with the opening set for Friday, July 15. Single tickets go on sale June 3 and will be available at www.TheOldGlobe.org.
Bill Irwin can’t escape Samuel Beckett. He has spent a lifetime captivated by the Irish writer’s language. In this intimate 90-minute evening, Irwin will explore a performer’s relationship to Beckett, mining the physical and verbal skills acquired in his years as a master clown and Tony Award–winning actor. Irwin’s approach to the comic, the tragic, to every side of Beckett’s work—including Waiting for Godot, Texts for Nothing, and more—will allow audiences to experience the language in compelling new ways. Whether you’re encountering the Nobel Prize winner’s writing for the first time, or building on a body of Beckett knowledge, this dynamic showcase is not to be missed.
The New York Times named the Off Broadway run of On Beckett a Critic’s Pick and said the production was “captivating… radiant, live theater.” New York magazine raved, “A delicious piece of theater… a playful, intimate experiment conducted by a master practitioner… utterly delightful.” And The Daily Beast exclaimed, “Near-90 minutes of pleasure… Irwin’s physical comedy is delicious… a brilliant gateway to understanding [Beckett].”
“Bill Irwin is an original. Actor, director, writer, thinker, and of course baggy-pants clown: there’s no one quite like him,” said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. “He is also one of the world’s foremost interpreters of the work of Samuel Beckett, one of the titans of modern drama. It is a signal honor and a special thrill to welcome Bill to The Old Globe with On Beckett, his hilarious, informative, and inspiring meditation on his years-long artistic conversation with this writer. It’s a unique evening of theatre, one of the most memorable in my lifetime of theatregoing, and I can’t wait to share it with San Diego.”
For the full press release, click here! For more on On Beckett, click here! For the On Beckett press page, click here!
Photo: Bill Irwin in Irish Repertory Theatre's virtual production of On Beckett. Photo courtesy of Irish Repertory Theatre/Carol Rosegg.
