Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Park Celebrates 5th Anniversary

P i t t s b u r g h S h a k e s p e a r e i n t h e P a r k s



Contact:

Jennifer Tober, Artistic Director

Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks

542 Gettysburg St.

Pittsburgh, PA 15206

412-404-8531

pittsburghshakespeare@yahoo.com





For Immediate Release





Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks celebrates 5th anniversary with “Love’s Labour’s Lost”



Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks, the city’s only free outdoor Shakespeare company, will present the Shakespeare comedy “Love’s Labour’s Lost” in Frick, Mellon, and Kennard Parks over the four weekends of September 2009.



First published in 1598, and then called “a pleasant, conceited comedy,” the story follows the young King of Navarre and his best friends who swear off love for 3 years, only to break their oaths by wooing the Princess of France and her ladies with hilarious hi-jinks and coquetry gone awry.



Melissa Hill Grande (of Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre and Phase 3 Productions) debuts with Pittsburgh Shakespeare as Director. “Grande brings her extensive directing experience and infectious energy, and approaches the play with a fresh spin,” says Jennifer Tober, PSIP Artistic Director. “Think Mt. Lebanon girls invade Upper St. Clair boys to get the Galleria back,” adds Grande.



Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks was born in 2005 when Tober, then a recent transplant from New York City, was so inspired by the natural amphitheater-like space at the bottom of the sledding hill in Frick Park in Squirrel hill that she formed the company and offered the Shakespeare comedy AS YOU LIKE IT that November. “Performing free, energetic Shakespeare in interesting, found, public spaces has been such an integral part of my theatre life and training, and I love bringing that to Pittsburgh audiences, as the city’s only outdoor Shakespeare company…we challenge the ‘doublet and hose’ image of Shakespeare by creating physical, understandable, and exciting theatre for today’s audience,” Tober says.



Love’s Labour’s Lost opens in Frick Park, near the Blue Slide playground on September 5 & 6, moves to Mellon Park on September 12 & 13, Kennard Park in the Hill District on September 19 & 20, and then returns to Frick Park on September 26 & 27 with all shows at 2 PM. Admission is FREE to the public and open to all ages. Donations are encouraged. “Bring a blanket, a thermos, and a loved one,” says Tober… and expect to be a part of the action and move about the parks, as the actors rove to different settings appropriate to each scene. Audience members may want to bring along an umbrella, too, as the show is cancelled only in heavy rain or dangerous conditions. “We’ve performed in a drizzle…and in the mud,” Tober adds.



The cast includes Douglas Baker, Sara Lamb, Joanna Getting, Tonya Lynn, Michelina Pollini, Adam Rutledge, Kaitlin Mausser, Laura Lee Brautigam, Emily Kolb, Rosh Raines, Eric James Davidson, Anna Gilchrist, Gabriel Proietti, Adam Hoak, Andrew Huntley, and Deanna Tangeman. Rachel Parent is the costumer, and Kaitlin Mausser is doing the choreography.