Santa Cruz Shakespeare Announces Cast & Production Team for Expanded 2024 Summer Festival
Tickets on sale now for outdoor productions of Shakespeare’s As You Like It & Hamlet, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie
JUNE 5, 2024– Santa Cruz, CA – Santa Cruz Shakespeare (SCS), a nationally recognized professional repertory theater company staging imaginative productions for more than a decade, today announced the cast and production teams for its 2024 Summer Festival productions of Shakespeare’s As You Like It & Hamlet, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest and Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie.
All productions will take place July 13 – Sept. 28, 2024, under the trees and stars in the Audrey Stanley Grove (The Grove) at Santa Cruz’s DeLaveaga Park. Ticket prices range from $20 to $70. Tickets available at www.santacruzshakespeare.org.
ABOUT THE PRODUCTIONS
As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Opening Night July 18, 2024, 8p.m.
Director Carey Perloff
Stage Manager Katie Ringwood Peavey
Cast
David Coulter Musician / Hyman
Jono Eiland Charles / Corin / Jaques de Boys
Patty Gallagher Touchstone
Justin Joung Silvius / Dennis
Charlotte Munson Rosalind
Charles Pasternak Oliver
Izzy Pedego Amiens
Chelsea Rose Phoebe / First Lord
Elliot Sagay Orlando
Jomar Tagatac Adam / Audrey
Anna Takayo Celia
Raphael Nash Thompson Duke Senior / Duke Fredrick
Paige Lindsey White Jacques / La Beau
Production Team
Marcella Barbeau Lighting Design
David Coulter Musical Composition
Barry G. Funderburg Sound Design
Pamela Rodríguez-Montero Costume Design
Michael Schweikardt Scenic Design
Director’s Note (Abbreviated)
“As You Like It is a play about learning how to fall in love. As such, at its core, it’s a play about rehearsal. More than almost any other Shakespeare play, As You Like It uses the conventions of theater-making to expose and celebrate complicated human interactions: within the play, we watch characters “rehearse” love, “perform” despair, revise behavior, expose illusion, learn to truly “see”, display passion and wit through song, and generally remind us, as Jacques says in the play’s most famous speech, that “all the world’s a stage.”
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Opening Night July 19, 2024, 8 p.m.
Director Paul Mullins
Stage Manager Daniel J Hanson
Cast
Marion Adler Ms. Prism
Will Block Algernon
Joshua Brown Merriman
Grayson DeJesus Jack
Saundra McClain Lady Bracknell
Kurt Meeker Lane
Brianna Miller Gwendolen
Allie Pratt Cecily
Mike Ryan Dr. Chasuble
Production Team
Marcella Barbeau Lighting Design
B. Modern Costume Design
Michael Schweikardt Scenic Design
Luke Shepherd Sound Design and Composition
Director’s Note (Abbreviated)
“What can I possibly say about Oscar Wilde’s work that hasn’t been said a thousand times before? Arguably, he is the wittiest and funniest author in the English language. But his work is also rife with powerful observations of human frailty, hypocrisy, and desire. To work with Oscar Wilde is to dance with a particular kind of greatness that flaunts convention and gives voice to the most secret of our forbidden dreams and the most fervent of our hidden wishes.”
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
Opening Night Aug. 2, 2024, 8 p.m.
Director Susan Dalian
Stage Manager Maggie Braun
Cast
Marion Adler Gertrude
Will Block Barnardo
Joshua Brown Osric / Player
Grayson DeJesus Laertes
Jono Eiland Rosencrantz
Patty Gallagher First Player (King)
Justin Joung Francisco / Player
Saundra McClain Reynaldo / 2nd Gravedigger
Brianna Miller Player (Queen)
Charlotte Munson Horatio
Charles Pasternak Hamlet
Izzy Pedego Messenger / Player
Allie Pratt Ophelia
Chelsea Rose Sailor / Player
Mike Ryan Claudius
Elliot Sagay Guildenstern
Jomar Tagatac Marcellus / Priest
Anna Takayo Player (Lucianus)
Raphael Nash Thompson Ghost / Gravedigger
Paige Lindsey White Polonius
Production Team
Marcella Barbeau Lighting Design
Austin Conlee Costume Design
Michael Schweikardt Scenic Design
Luke Shepherd Sound Design and Composition
Director’s Note (Abbreviated)
“It’s a daunting challenge to accept the role of directing the most known, performed, quoted and scrutinized play in Shakespeare’s canon. Now, I’ve been eager to have the opportunity to direct this play for a while, but how and where to start? After grappling with those questions for a few days, I realized the only questions worth asking were, ‘What story do I see in this play?’ and ‘What would be both truthful to Shakespeare’s words and entertaining for the faithful SCS audience?’”
The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams
Opening Night September 13, 2024, 8 p.m.
Director Charles Pasternak
Stage Manager Daniel J Hanson
Cast
Marion Adler Amanda
Will Block Tom
Charles Pasternak Jim
Allie Pratt Laura
Production Team
Marcella Barbeau Lighting Design
B. Modern Costume Design
Michael Schweikardt Scenic Design
Luke Shepherd Sound Design and Composition
Director’s Note (abbreviated)
“I believe this American masterpiece is all the greater for its gentleness, its fragility. And all the more heartbreaking and beautiful. Former Santa Cruz Shakespeare Artistic Director Mike Ryan told me his one regret in his position was never producing Tennessee Williams, the favorite playwright of his partner Don. It’s my joy to be able to resolve that omission. This production is dedicated to the two of them, whose contributions to this festival are too numerous to name here.”
The 2024 Summer Festival will also include the Fringe Series: two staged readings and two performances of its intern show.
The performance calendar can be found at santacruzshakespeare.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Calendar-for-Brochure-CROP.jpg.
Tickets can be purchased online at santacruzshakespeare.org or through the seasonal Box Office, 831-460-6399, open Tuesday through Thursday from 12p.m. to 4p.m.
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.
