JACKSON (February 9, 2011) -- Students will have an opportunity to experience the passion and drama of The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet in the manner William Shakespeare intended – through a live performance – as the Michigan Shakespeare Festival brings its ShortShakes Tour to approximately four dozen Michigan high schools this spring.
The ShortShakes Tour, now in its second season, is being offered to high schools in Hillsdale, Ingham, Jackson, Lenawee, Livingston, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, Washtenaw, and Wayne counties from February 11 through May 27.
“The goal of the tour is for high school students to see why we’re still doing these shows 400 years after their original writing,” Michigan Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Janice L. Blixt said. “While Shakespeare as literature is fascinating and important, seeing Shakespeare performed live is a completely different experience — we want students to see that Shakespeare is about love and life and laughter and, yes, death.”
The show is trimmed down to about 95 minutes in order to better fit within the school day and is set as Shakespeare’s own company would have performed it: without a set and with a mixture of “period” props and costumes with modern pieces. A highlight of the show will be the fights, choreographed by MSF resident fight director, David Blixt.
“Romeo and Juliet is a fun show to design the violence for as it runs the fight-gambit from absurd playfulness to deadly cut and thrusts — from swashbuckling fun to real violence,” David Blixt said.
Matthew Andersen of Ann Arbor and Sarah Leahy of Dearborn have been cast in the title roles for the second consecutive season. The 2011 cast also includes Jay Donley of St. Joseph (Mercutio), Rick Eva of Canton (Peter / Montague), Dennis Kleinsmith of Lathrup Village (Capulet), Ramona Lucius of Detroit (Nurse), Ty Mitchell of Ann Arbor (Benvolio), Allyson Ortwein of Sterling Heights (Lady Capulet), Jeffrey Booth Stringer of Jackson (the Friar), and Torrey Wigfield of Ann Arbor (Tybalt). Tour understudies include Brooklyn Dimitrie, Stephanie VanAlstine, and Jamie Weeder of Ann Arbor; and Joseph Fournier, Michael Powers, and Chris Sweet of Ypsilanti. The company is rounded out by Stefanie Din of Romeo as the tour’s Technical Director, with Stringer serving as the Tour Coordinator.
“We have an incredibly talented group from all over southeast and south central Michigan,” Stringer said. “I’m proud to be bringing this show on the road.”
Started in 2010 as a 10-performance pilot program in Jackson and Washtenaw counties, the ShortShakes Tour is being expanded in 2011 to include more than two dozen performances as MSF, the Official Shakespeare Festival of the State of Michigan, seeks to significantly extend its educational outreach to include high schools, children, teachers and professionals in addition to its annual summer season of professional Shakespeare productions.
Founded in 1995, the Michigan Shakespeare Festival has entertained nearly 45,000 people of all ages during its traditional summer season. It has grown from a humble, single-week attraction with local amateur performers to a four-week, 23-show event featuring regional professional actors, playing to rave reviews each summer.
Romantic Comedy, French Farce, and Dreamy Enchantment are on the agenda this summer for the Michigan Shakespeare Festival’s 17th season. Fan favorite Much Ado About Nothing will anchor two plays new to the Festival: Moliere’s Tartuffe and Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale. MSF’s professional Shakespearean company will run all three shows in rotating repertory from July 14-August 7 at the Jackson Community College Potter Center.
Tickets and more information are available at www.MichiganShakespeareFestival.com.
Matthew Andersen of Ann Arbor and Sarah Leahy of Dearborn return in the title roles for the 2011 Michigan Shakespeare Festival ShortShakes Tour being presented in local high schools February 11 through May 27.