Welcome to The Philadelphia Shakespeare Festival's 11th Season!
Our journeys over the last ten years have taken us to far off places: Denmark, Sicily, Pisa, Verona, Venice, Cyprus, Messina, a magical island, a magical forest, Illyria, 12th Century England, the Forest of Arden, Bohemia, Rome, Scotland. We have delved into the real madness of a young woman in love who drowns herself, and the blood lust of her lover set on revenge for his father's murder. We have experienced the death of a child and the abandonment of a baby girl because of insane jealousy, the separation of her parents and their joyful reunion 20 years later with her. We have seen a great general in the grips of that same jealousy so turned inside out with the green-eyed monster that he smothers his beloved wife. We have lost ourselves in young love and sexual awakening, heard music that lifts the spirit and makes the heart weep. We have been plunged into the volcanic courtship of a man and a woman that leads to the emotional truth of themselves in spite of rigid social mores, while having a rip-roaring time of it. We have wept as we watched a loving daughter die in her fathers arms because of his foolishness and shortsightedness. We have nearly died with laughter as silly fools fall in and out of love only to find each other through the most exquisite poetry ever written.
This year join us on two more remarkable adventures. Travel with us as we encounter the vastness of the Mediterranean world, with its fabled cities and troubled seas, as depicted in the sprawling epic Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Also, we will visit the exquisitely beautiful city of Verona, Italy, where in Romeo and Juliet, the community of Verona is tragically fragmented by the seemingly endless feud between the great houses of Montague and Capulet.
As always, Shakespeare is our travel guide and is our daring, adventurous teacher. Join us for this rich journey, as we charter unexplored waters, full of laughter, tears, epiphanies and connections.
-Carmen Khan
Artistic/Executive Director