Nigel Gore News

Shakespeare & Company is excited to announce its 2020 summer season, May 21 - October 18, 2020. Under the theme 'The Labyrinth of Love' the season includes Shakespeare titles: King Lear, Much Ado About Nothing, The Comedy of Errors, and, in a special workshop production, Measure for Measure. The contemporary plays this season are The Lifespan of a Fact by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell, and Gordon Farrell; What Rhymes With America, by the Obie Award-winning playwright Melissa James Gibson; Row After Row by Jessica Dickey; Susan Smith Blackburn Award and Obie Award winner My Left Breast by Susan Miller; and Laurence Olivier Award winner Betrayal by Harold Pinter.

Performing arts non-profit FirstWorks launches its 2020 programming with Rhode Island's own world-class performance collaborative, Aurea Ensemble. A public concert on January 26 of the ensemble's newest work, featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning works by American composers and writers, will be followed by a conversation with the artists. Community engagement programming in Providence schools takes place the following day.

FirstWorks Presents Aurea Ensemble Of Nature Composed Sunday, January 26, 2020, 4 p.m., First Unitarian Church of Providence 1 Benevolent Street, Providence.

Aurea Ensemble will present its annual holiday concert, A Child's Christmas in Wales on Sunday, December 15, 3pm at St. John's Episcopal Church in Barrington and on Friday, December 20, 7pm at St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Providence.  This heartwarming performance ushers in the season with the Ensemble's magical alchemy of music and words, incorporating a charming reading of the Dylan Thomas classic story with musical interludes of festive chamber music, harpsichord and traditional English carols.  The concert is for all ages, an uplifting event for children and adults alike.

Shakespeare & Company presents a one-time-only performance of Julius Caesar directed by Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer, who was recently honored by a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Shakespeare Theatre Association.

The cast includes Martin Jason Asprey (Mr. Frank Ford), Steven Barkhimer (George Page), Gregory Boover (Master Fenton), MaConnia Chesser (Meg Page), Jordan Cobb (Anne Page), Tobias Goodman (Pistol/Simple), Nigel Gore (Sir John Falstaff), Cloteal L. Horne (Mistress Quickly), Jennie M. Jadow (Alice Ford), Madeleine Rose Maggio (Robert Shallow), Bella Merlin (Sir Hugh Evans), and Mary Shalaby (Nym/Rugby). Many of whom we recently enjoyed in the Shakespeare & Company production of Twelfth Night. The troupe is outstanding. Steven Barhimer, Gregory Boover, MaConnia Chesser, Jordan Cobb, Jennie M. Jadow are so at-ease and comfortable in their roles and make the audience feel likewise. Tobias Goodman and Mary Shalaby are especially noteworthy and accomplished particularly given that they are the youngest in the ensemble but keep pace and level with both more seasoned and professional members of the cast. Madeleine Rose Maggio and Bella Merlin both take on roles of the opposite gender with confidence and convection and both make it work well. Cloteal L. Horne is sassy and soulful providing enough attitude to keep things real and some surprise vocals that are impressive as well. Nigel Gore and Martin Jason Asprey seem to have been born to do Shakespeare. Both have well-developed sense of comedic timing. Asprey's banter directly with the audience delights and earns spontaneous mid-scene applause multiple times.

Shakespeare & Company presents a one-time-only performance of Julius Caesar directed by Founding Artistic Director Tina Packer, who was recently honored by a Lifetime Achievement Award by The Shakespeare Theatre Association. The special staged reading features the Obie Award-winning John Douglas Thompson as Brutus along with a cast of returning Company favorites. The reading will be held in the Tina Packer Playhouse at 1:30pm on September 1st.

 Shakespeare & Company presents William Shakespeare's madcap comedy, The Merry Wives of Windsor directed by founding company member and Director of Education, Kevin G. Coleman.

The entire cast proves themselves to be exemplary delivering long complicated dialogue that remains true to the old English, not with trite overdone accents but with polished voices and presentation that helps to make each unique, authentic, and engaging. Although the language can be challenging at times, the actors use of body language and near flawless diction helps greatly. Their musicality is both noteworthy and impressive.

Shakespeare & Company presents William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, directed by Company Artistic Director, Allyn Burrows. This classic showcases a rich, affecting, and deeply funny story of longing, love, and laughter which paints Shakespeare at his peak. Performances run from July 2 to August 4th in the Tina Packer Playhouse.

Aurea Ensemble, Aurea Ensemble, one of New England's most original and extraordinary chamber ensembles, is thrilled to present  another new program, Secret Signs, on March 30, 2019 8:00pm at St. Martin's Episcopal Church, 50 Orchard Avenue, Providence. 

Go back in time to 1665 and learn about the theatre world in London.

Shakespeare & Company is proud to announce that Founding Artistic Director, Tina Packer, was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by The Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA). She received the Douglas N. Cook Lifetime Achievement Award while attending the 2019 STA Conference in Prague. The award honors STA members who have made and are still making significant contributions to the field of Shakespeare Theatre.

The performance of Alison Luff in the title role is nothing short of miraculous; her transformation from a trash-talking orange-monger to a star of the stage is unforgettable, and for theatre-goers to neglect this rare gem would border on criminal negligence.

Behold the year of the woman: 1665. Folger Theatrecontinues its 2018/19 season of characters who 'shake the world' with Nell Gwynn, the Olivier Award-winning 2016 comedy from London about one of the first women to perform on the English stage. Written by British playwright Jessica Swale (Blue Stockings), Nell Gwynn was commissioned by Shakespeare's Globe where it premiered, followed by a celebrated 2016 run on the West End that earned an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. Robert Richmond (Macbeth, Timon of Athens, Henry V at the Folger) will direct the East Coast premiere of the play at Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Shakespeare & Company is thrilled to announce its 2019 summer season, May 23 - October 13, 2019.

Behold the year of the woman: 1665. Folger Theatre continues its 2018/19 season of characters who "shake the world" with Nell Gwynn, the Olivier Award-winning 2016 comedy from London about one of the first women to perform on the English stage.

Shakespeare & Company presents William Shakespeare's beloved comedy As You Like It, directed by the Company's Artistic Director Allyn Burrows, who helmed last season's acclaimed production of The Tempest. The Bard's madcap story follows Rosalind, played by two-time Elliot Norton Award winner Aimee Doherty, who escapes a threatening world of oppression in the pursuit of love and the prospect of new horizons. Set in the Roaring Twenties, As You Like It will be performed outdoors in The Roman Garden Theatre, specially reconfigured for the season's special sunset performances running from August 9 to September 2.

Shakespeare & Company presents William Shakespeare's Macbeth, directed by Obie Award-winning director Melia Bensussen. Company veterans Jonathan Croy and Tod Randolph take the helm as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, two of Shakespeare's most notorious anti-heroes. Shakespeare's stunning classic of blind ambition and corrosive power runs from July 3 - August 5 in the Tina Packer Playhouse.