Geniuses or Madmen?

Who do you consider to be the greatest artists of all time? Shakespeare? Mozart? Michelangelo? What do you think moved them to create? What flashes of insight illuminated their dreams? What ghosts haunted their imaginations? Were they tortured or inspired, or something in between? The more we learn about the masters, the more we recognize just how fine a line there is between the exhilaration of genius and the abyss of madness. This dance between reason and raving is our touchstone for Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s Fifteenth Anniversary Season.

Five geniuses in the craft of storytelling are lined up to shatter your perceptions of theater this year, with our mad little band of artists as their voice. Starting with the genius of Mozart in Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus and ending with the brilliant comedic wit of George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man, this season will be a celebration to remember!

We are particularly excited about two special productions this season. Hamlet, arguably the greatest play ever written in the English language, returns to our boards this autumn as a classic ghost story with a fierce, fresh staging. In our fourth annual Studio Series offering, we are proud to present the work of a classic master as interpreted by one of our greatest living wordsmiths with Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull in a brand-new version by Tom Stoppard. The genius of our resident playwright rounds out the season with a holiday production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, the slapstick farce of The Comedy of Errors, and our first-ever production of the Bard’s savagely satirical Timon of Athens.

As I mentioned before, this season marks Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s Fifteenth Anniversary, as well as a decade for some of your favorite ensemble members. Every year we are inspired by the works of Shakespeare and classical theater, and want to reach out to you, our audience, and have a conversation about art, meaning, community, and life. We are honored that you have kept us in your lives for 15 years, and we promise to keep striving to bring you the best classical theater in the region for many anniversaries to come.

See you soon at the theater.

Warmly,

Brian Isaac Phillips
Artistic Director

P.S. You’ll notice that our ticket prices this year are exactly the same as they were last year. We believe that everyone should be able to afford a little inspiration. Happy anniversary!