Coachella Valley Shakespeare
GREEN ROOM THEATRE COMPANY PRESENTS KING LEAR AND THE DRESSER FOR THE SECOND ANNUAL COACHELLA SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
King Lear aficionados will have a field day when Green Room Theatre Company presents two plays - one Elizabethan classic and one modern Broadway hit - that both explore Shakespeare's tragic theme of aging and the dissolution of character.
The cast of seventeen is led by many of the desert's finest Shakespearean actors. It includes Desert Theatre League award-winners Barry Cutler, Derrik Lewis, Garnett Smith, and June August under the direction of John Alex Houlton.
The actors bring to vivid life the story of an aging king who foolishly decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters – and lives to regret it. In parallel runs the story of the King’s chief minister, the Earl of Gloucester, who has two sons. One son, Edmund, is illegitimate; he accuses his brother Edgar of plotting to kill their father Gloucester.
Passions run high as Lear goes mad from his daughters' betrayal, and Gloucester plays a terrible price to discover the same about his sons. Since Ronald Harwood's Broadway hit The Dresser in 1979, King Lear has inspired two other best-selling works: Akira Kurosawa's film Ran (1985) and Jane Smiley's novel A Thousand Acres (2003).
King Lear will be followed in the Coachella Shakespeare Festival by The Dresser on
Friday and Saturday, May 17 and 18.
King Lear aficionados will have a field day when Green Room Theatre Company presents two plays - one Elizabethan classic and one modern Broadway hit - that both explore Shakespeare's tragic theme of aging and the dissolution of character.
The cast of seventeen is led by many of the desert's finest Shakespearean actors. It includes Desert Theatre League award-winners Barry Cutler, Derrik Lewis, Garnett Smith, and June August under the direction of John Alex Houlton.
The actors bring to vivid life the story of an aging king who foolishly decides to divide his kingdom between his three daughters – and lives to regret it. In parallel runs the story of the King’s chief minister, the Earl of Gloucester, who has two sons. One son, Edmund, is illegitimate; he accuses his brother Edgar of plotting to kill their father Gloucester.
Passions run high as Lear goes mad from his daughters' betrayal, and Gloucester plays a terrible price to discover the same about his sons. Since Ronald Harwood's Broadway hit The Dresser in 1979, King Lear has inspired two other best-selling works: Akira Kurosawa's film Ran (1985) and Jane Smiley's novel A Thousand Acres (2003).
King Lear will be followed in the Coachella Shakespeare Festival by The Dresser on
Friday and Saturday, May 17 and 18.
THE STORY: AN ILIAD is a modern-day retelling of Homer's classic. Poetry and humor, the ancient tale of the Trojan War and the modern world collide in this captivating theatrical experience. The setting is simple: the empty theater. The time is now: the present moment. The lone figure onstage is a storyteller—possibly Homer, possibly one of the many bards who followed in his footsteps. He is fated to tell this story throughout history.
"Intimate, unstuffy, timely, accessible—while preserving a sense of timelessness, and grandeur, [AN ILIAD] enthralls and pierces your heart with images of fallen warriors, bereft wives and parents, and the bitter landscape of a long, fruitless, uselessly barbaric war."
~Seattle Times.
"Intimate, unstuffy, timely, accessible—while preserving a sense of timelessness, and grandeur, [AN ILIAD] enthralls and pierces your heart with images of fallen warriors, bereft wives and parents, and the bitter landscape of a long, fruitless, uselessly barbaric war."
~Seattle Times.
"A madcap condensation that features nonstop laughs. Done at a whirlwind pace...and sure to win over even the most skeptical. And there is no doubt that William Shakespeare himself...would approve." ~ Daily Variety
Don't miss this very special event!!
Friday, February 1st, 6p~ Barnes and Noble Palm Desert Westfield Mall
Saturday, February 2nd, 6p~ Create Center for the Arts
73733 Fred Waring Drive Ste. 100, Palm Desert
Both shows are FREE!
For more info please call 760-696-2546
Don't miss this very special event!!
Friday, February 1st, 6p~ Barnes and Noble Palm Desert Westfield Mall
Saturday, February 2nd, 6p~ Create Center for the Arts
73733 Fred Waring Drive Ste. 100, Palm Desert
Both shows are FREE!
For more info please call 760-696-2546
