Baltimore Shakespeare Factory Opens 2017 Season with 'Antony & Cleopatra'

From Baltimore Shakespeare Factory: Baltimore Shakespeare Factory (BSF), working closely with world-renowned dialect and original pronunciation (OP) expert Paul Meier, will open its 2017 season with an historic production of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, March 31 through April 23 at The Great Hall at St. Mary’s Community Center. BSF’s presentation will be the very first time that modern audiences will be able to hear Antony and Cleopatra spoken the way Shakespeare's audiences would have heard it when it was first performed in the early 1600s.

Tickets start at $15, plus applicable service fees, and are on sale now at Brown Paper Tickets. For more information, call (410) 662-9455 or visit BaltimoreShakespeareFactory.org.

This will be the third consecutive season in which BSF has produced a play in OP. In keeping with the company's philosophy to produce the works of Shakespeare using the staging conditions of his time, the company plans to continue performing at least one play in OP each season, making BSF among the world’s foremost producers of OP Shakespeare. Worldwide, less than twenty OP productions have been mounted since the 2004 Globe Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet revitalized interest in that type of Shakespearean performance.

Considered by some to be the greatest love story ever told, Antony and Cleopatra is a sweeping epic that pits East against West in a battle that shaped a new world. The play offers keen insight into timeless themes of love, honor, and power that are still relevant today.

BSF’s associate artistic director Chris Cotterman and Valerie Dowdle play the title roles, respectively. Chris has been part of BSF since 2012. He directed last season's Much Ado About Nothing, and co-directed 2013's A Midsummer Night's Dream with Tom Delise. Valerie has been a company member with BSF since 2014, when she played Duke Vincentio in Measure for Measure. In 2015 she appeared as Portia inThe Merchant of Venice in OP, and as King Henry in the all-female production of Henry IV, Part 1. BSF founder and artistic director Tom Delise directs this production.

With its commitment to presenting OP productions, BSF continues its relationship with OP experts David and Ben Crystal. Accent and dialect expert Paul Meier joins the advisory board, and will consult on this production. Meier is a Shakespeare scholar, teacher and coach. His Voicing Shakespeare ebook addresses the linguistic challenges of Shakespearean language. As a member of the BBC Drama Repertory Company, Meier acted in more than a dozen of Shakespeare’s works. In his teaching at universities and conservatories, and in his classes at the Shakespeare Centre in Stratford-upon-Avon in England, he has trained two generations of actors in Shakespeare’s works.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA

March 31 – April 23, 2017

Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 4 p.m.

Pre-show entertainment begins 30 minutes before curtain.

The Great Hall at St. Mary’s Community Center - 3900 Roland Avenue, Baltimore 21211

http://www.baltimoreshakespearefactory.org

THE CAST (in alphabetical order)

Kerry Brady Octavia/Menecrates

Jessica Behar Menas

Chris Cotterman Mark Antony

Valerie Dowdle Cleopatra

David Forrer Ponpey

Isa Guitian Iras/Ventidius

Flynn Harne Enobarbus/Gallus

Troy Jennings Octavius Caesar

Joe Lewis Agrippa/Philo/Diomed

Tom Piccin Mardian/Scarus/Thidias/Seleucus

Bethany Mayo Charmaina/Silius

Eric Scherbarth Alexa/Maecenas

ARTISTIC TEAM

Paul Meier OP Consultant

Tom Delise Director

Jonas David Grey Assistant Director

Jessica Clark-May Dramaturg

April Forrer Costume Designer

Jim Stimson Music Director

Rachel Tilley Stage Manager

INFORMATION ON ORIGINAL PRONUNCIATION

Paul Meier’s website: http://www.paulmeier.com/shakespeare/

Ben and David Crystal discuss Original Pronunciation:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPlpphT7n9s

Ben Crystal demonstrates the difference between Regular Pronunciation and Original Pronunciation:

https://youtu.be/1K_mZagvy9s

David Crystal’s site on Original Pronunciation:

http://originalpronunciation.com/

ABOUT TOM DELISE

Tom Delise founded Baltimore Shakespeare Factory (BSF) in 2006 and is the artistic director of the company. He received a BA degree in English from Brockport University and a master’s degree in liberal studies from Towson University. For BSF, he has directed The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, Much Ado About Nothing, As You Like It, Macbeth, Love’s Labor’s Lost, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Richard III, Measure for Measure and co-directed A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Chris Cotterman. He has also directed a staged reading of The Famous Victories of Henry V, performed at the American Shakespeare Center. Delise has been a high school teacher for over thirty years and is the author of the book, That Is the Question: The Ultimate Shakespeare Quiz Book.

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