Santa Cruz Shakespeare Tickets on Sale Now for Summer
Performances Include Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Twelfth Night, As Well As World-Premiere of The Formula, by Kathryn Chetkovich
Santa Cruz, CA (May 2, 2022) – Santa Cruz Shakespeare (SCS), an inspired, professional theatre company in Santa Cruz County with deep local roots that go back more than 40 years, announced today tickets are on sale now for its summer 2022 season of live outdoor performances.
The season begins with a World-Premiere of The Formula by Kathryn Chetkovich – inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Ellen Maguire, and a co-production with Blissfield. Twelfth Night and The Tempest by William Shakespeare will round out the festival. All productions will take place at Audrey Stanley Grove (The Grove) in DeLaveaga Park from July 10 – Aug. 28, 2022.
“As we begin to emerge from the shipwreck and isolation of our pandemic lives, I find hope in the realization that we do not have to return to the world we left,” said Mike Ryan, artistic director, Santa Cruz Shakespeare. “We can abandon ideas that have outgrown their usefulness, challenge the status quo, and recreate ourselves, our community, and our world with greater compassion and authenticity. This season’s plays encourage us in that great endeavor. In all of them, characters have grown trapped by old ways of thinking and are shocked awake by calamity, self-examination and love.”
“We’re thrilled to be back to full capacity this summer and to bring our audiences three compelling productions that will entertain and inspire all ages,” said Larry Mabrey, managing director, Santa Cruz Shakespeare. “In addition, we are also pleased to bring back the highly popular Staged Reading Series and our annual Fringe Production featuring members of the 2022 Summer Intern Program.”
About the 2022 Season Productions
World Premiere of The Formula
by Kathryn Chetkovich, directed by Ellen Maguire, Co-Production with Blissfield
In The Formula, inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, an anxious young researcher experimenting with the neuroscience of attraction faces a difficult choice when an untested formula she’s been working on gets loose at her own wedding — with spectacularly disastrous results. By swapping a lab-manufactured substance for Puck’s “love-in-idleness” flower, The Formula poses questions about the chemical and cultural forces that shape our ideas of romantic love. The ensemble cast of this whip-smart, funny, and moving new play by Santa Cruz playwright Kathryn Chetkovich includes Allie Pratt (SCS’s Pride and Prejudice) and Dion Graham (The Wire). The New Yorker’s George Saunders calls it “a wonderful new play.” https://rb.gy/sjvpdq This world premiere, the inaugural production of Blissfield, director Ellen Maguire’s NYC-based production company, is supported by a generous grant from the NEA.
Twelfth Night
by William Shakespeare, directed by Paul Mullins
Twelfth Night introduces us to Viola who is shipwrecked physically, and then introduces her to a cast of characters who are shipwrecked emotionally. Stuck in old ideas of love and grief that have grown so stale as to become something else entirely, the region of Illyria is shocked from Winter into Springtime by the passions of young Viola who disguises herself as a man in order to survive. Twelfth Night features festival veterans Patty Gallagher, Lorenzo Roberts, Paige Lindsey White, and Charles Pasternak, along with an all-star cast of fresh new faces. This production will be directed by Paul Mullins, one of SCS’s associate artists and the director of The Agitators, Pride and Prejudice, Love’s Labours Lost, The 39 Steps, and Hamlet.
The Tempest
by William Shakespeare, directed by Miriam Laube
The Tempest also begins with a shipwreck, though this is one created by design… more specifically, by the magic of Prospero’s tempest. Determined to destroy those who banished her to the island, Prospero weaves spells of illusion and enchantment with the aid of the spirit Ariel to exact her revenge. As love blossoms before her eyes, Prospero must choose between vengeance and hope. Part tale of revenge and part comedy, The Tempest is full of music, spectacle, and the magic of art. Directed by Miriam Laube, a veteran of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Tempest features Laura Gordon as the magician Prospero.
The Fringe Show
An adaptation of the play by Pierre de Marivaux, Enslaver’s Isle will be performed by this season’s interns in August. Biting social commentary and comedy abound in this adaptation that catapults 18th century questions of status and privilege into our contemporary moment.
Staged Reading Series
The Fringe Staged Reading Series is free to the public and offers theatregoers the opportunity to hear both new work and adaptations of classics. This year’s series includes Simply the Thing She Is by Kate Hawley on Aug. 9, preceded by a yet to be named play on Aug. 2.
Tickets for the 2022 Summer Season can be purchased at https://santacruzshakespeare.org/season-
2022/. Membership packages are also available and include several benefits including ticket discounts, early admission, free parking, and more. For details on membership, visit: https://santacruzshakespeare.org/member/.
About Santa Cruz Shakespeare
Featuring professional actors from around the country and inspired by deep local roots that go back more than 40 years, Santa Cruz Shakespeare stages bold productions of the plays of Shakespeare and other great playwrights that stimulate audiences’ senses and spark their imagination. For more information about SCS, visit santacruzshakespeare.org, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
