EVENTS
Julius Caesar
by William Shakespeare
August 1, 3, 5, 7, 9
The Houston Shakespeare Festival
A profound work about misguided ambitions that seems torn out of
today's headlines. Shakespeare's depiction of the vast gulf that
lies
between private life and personal ambition is at the center of
this
remarkable play.
Cymbeline
by William Shakespeare
August 2, 6, 8, 10
The Houston Shakespeare Festival
A great fairy tale for adults where themes of jealousy, fidelity,
simplicity, and sophistication are all played out with Shakespeare's
customary genius. As noted director Patrick Tucker stated, "It is
a
play for our time."
Present Laughter
by Noel Coward
May 10-June 22
Main Street Theater
Joel Sandel stars as Garry Essendine, an aging matinee idol teetering
reluctantly towards middle age but everyone, both male and female, is
infatuated with him. Flamboyant and witty, wearing a silk dressing
gown and equipped with the requisite cocktail, his life is one long
performance in which he can never be himself. About to set off on an
extended tour of Africa , Essendine is visited by practicallyeveryone he knows, including his ex-wife/manager, lawyer, secretary,
butler, business partners, an admiring young playwright and a recent
one-night stand. An acknowledged self-portrait of the playwright
himself, PRESENT LAUGHTER is a marvelously comic exaggeration of the
life that whirled around Coward in his heyday.
Translations
by Brian Friel
February 23-March 23
Main Street Theater
The action takes place in late August 1833 at a hedge-school in the
townland of Baile Beag, an Irish speaking community in County
Donegal. In a nearby field camps a recently arrived detachment of the
Royal Engineers, making the first Ordnance Survey. For the purposes
of cartography, the local Gaelic place names have to be recorded and
rendered into English. In examining the effects of this operation on
the lives of a small group, Brian Freel skillfully reveals the
far-reaching personal and cultural effects of an action which is at
first sight purely administrative.