Hold-Over Performance Schedule Announced for The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival

Aug 4, 2008

Media Contacts

INCLINE VILLAGE, Nev.- For the first time in its 36 year history, the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival is extending its season past its traditional six-week schedule offering patrons one last chance to catch two of the season's plays. The hold-over week schedule includes a final performance of "CAMBIO" Monday, Aug. 18 followed by three nights of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Aug. 19 - 21.

"We've seen a tremendous audience response to ‘A Midsummer Night's Dream' and its modern interpretation and ‘CAMBIO' due to its impressive and moving original musical score, that adding the additional performances is a natural extension to our successful season," said Catherine Atack, executive director for the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream," a complex and thought-provoking comedy incorporates the natural beauty of Lake Tahoe into the production, drawing inspiration from the area's rich Native American heritage in contrast to its contemporary inhabitants. Guest director Michael Walling, the artistic director for London's Border Crossings Theatre, provides his take on the performance by beginning with the celebration of the impending marriage of Duke Theseus and Hippolyta at which point the festivities are interrupted by a dispute over Hermia's arranged marriage. The story takes a turn as Hermia flees her marital fate and retreats into the woods with her true love to secretly marry, pursued by her betrothed and the girl that pines for him. The two couples, along with a troupe of mechanicals who are rehearsing for a play in the woods for the Duke's wedding celebration, become entwined in the mischievous plot of the fairy king and his trickster servant Puck. As the two conspire to sabotage the fairy queen, the four lovers and one of the mechanicals become unwitting victims of a love elixir administered by Puck. The lovers' shifting affections create havoc in the forest until Puck creates a heavy fog to lead the characters back to sleep and applies the antidote. Upon waking, all the young people find they are in love with the right person and the fairy king and his foe reconcile, just in time to head off to a gala triple wedding and hilarious performance acted by the mechanicals.

"CAMBIO" brings live music to the venue with New York musician Omar Alexander and his band Soulare in the Festival's non-Shakespeare production. The band infuses a new dimension of musical energy and excitement to the production combining a dynamic blend of Latin, world beat, contemporary funk and soul rhythms with English and Spanish lyrics. Individually, members of Soulare have shared stages and studios with a host of salsa, rock, jazz, Latin and R&B greats including Bruce Springsteen, Maceo Parker, Gloria Estefan and Norah Jones. "CAMBIO" is an original musical love story set in modern day Havana and is about change happening today in revolutionary Cuba.

Annually, the Festival draws more than 30,000 attendees from the across the country to its specially built Warren Edward Trepp Stage at Sand Harbor State Park. The plays are complemented by gourmet food and drink from Shakespeare's Kitchen, the fresh Sierra Nevada air and the crystal blue waters of Lake Tahoe, making the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival a one-of-a-kind theatre experience.

Tickets for the extended season are now available online at www.LakeTahoeShakespeare.com with reduced handling fees for all purchases, or by calling 888-32-SHOWS (888-327-4697). Tickets start at $22 for open seating tiers and range in options up to the premier reserved seating section from $67.

The Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization established for the cultural benefit and enjoyment of all residents and visitors to Lake Tahoe and Reno. Annually drawing more than 30,000 attendees from across the country to the specially built Warren Edward Trepp Stage along the north shore of Lake Tahoe, the Festival is a regional advocate for producing the finest cultural events in the region. Through its in-house artistic direction, the Festival produces three plays each summer, creating original costuming, set design and choreography, and attracting a team of national and international stage talent. The Festival's community outreach includes and annual program, InterACT, designed to educate future generations on the importance of the arts, theatre and music.

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