Friday, August 29, 2014

As You Like It Sparkles in Pgh Shakespeare in the Parks throughout September


Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks celebrates 10th Anniversary of free city park performances with AS YOU LIKE IT, weekends in September

Contact:  Yvonne Hudson 412-512-0589

Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks offers up comedy “As You Like It” to celebrate 10th Anniversary of free Shakespeare in city parks

Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks marks its 10th season of presenting free Shakespeare plays in city parks by reprising its inaugural 2005 production  of As You Like It, one of the Bard’s finest comedies which takes place in the ‘Forest of Arden’ and deals with the familiar themes of gender-disguising and mistaken identities.

Free performances for all ages run Saturday and Sunday afternoons (rain or shine), Sept. 6-28, in five different city parks. Audience members are invited to bring blankets and chairs. Picnics are welcome!

Visit www.pittsburghshakespeare.org or email info@pittsburghshakespeare.org. Event phone: 412-512-0589.

RAIN OR SHINE! PSIP performs rain or shine, as long as there is an audience with an exception for thunder or lightning which immediately stops the show.

SHOWTIMES for FREE performances of AS YOU LIKE IT, running each Saturday and Sunday in September 2014.

Sept. 6 and 7 at 2 pm
Frick Park, Blue Slide Playground, Beechwood Blvd. & Nicholson Street, Squirrel Hill
Sun. 1:40 pm Alan Irvine Storytelling Pre-show
Venture Outdoors Urban Hikes in association with AYLI: on  Sat., Sept. 6

Sat., Sept. 13 at 2 pm
Allegheny Commons West Park, Ridge Ave & Arch St, North Side (behind the Aviary)
1:40 pm Alan Irvine Storytelling pre-show

Sun., Sept. 14 at 2 pm: Arsenal Park, 40th and Butler Streets, Lawrenceville
1:40 pm Alan Irvine Storytelling Pre-show

Sat., and Sun., Sept. 20 and 21 at 2 pm
Sat. 1-1:45 pm Falstaff's Fellows - youth troupe pre-show Performance
Sun. 1:40 pm Alan Irvine Storytelling Pre-show
All at Schenley Park, Flagstaff Hill at Frew St.
Venture Outdoors Urban Hikes in association with AYLI:  on Sun., Sept. 21
http://www.ventureoutdoors.org/

Sat, Sept. 27  New! Two-performance day!
Shows at BOTH 11 am and 2:30 pm
Frick Park, Blue Slide Playground, Beechwood Blvd. & Nicholson St., Squirrel Hill

Sun., Sept. 28 at 2 pm
Frick Park, Blue Slide Playground, Beechwood Blvd. & Nicholson St., Squirrel Hill
1 pm Falstaff's Fellows - youth troupe pre-show performance

Venture Outdoors Urban Hikes in association with AYLI:  on two dates:
Sat., Sept. 6
Sun., Sept. 21
http://www.ventureoutdoors.org/

Directed by local favorite Lisa Ann Goldsmith and featuring PSIP Artistic Director Jennifer Tober as Rosalind, the spunky female protagonist, PSIP’s 10th anniversary offering employs the First Folio text, using Shakespeare’s original language as it was first published a few years after the playwright's death.

PSIP promotes its own unique brand of engaging, physical classical theater outdoors in public parks, using no set except the natural environs.

“AS YOU LIKE IT is arguably Shakespeare’s finest comedy," says Tober. "And where better to play the Forest of Arden than in the parks of Pittsburgh? Filled with love, deception, gender reversals and laugh-out-loud comedy, “As You Like It” is a great late-summer offering for theatre-goers of all ages."

“Really, nothing makes me happier than doing or seeing Shakespeare outdoors on a beautiful day – or even a yucky day. It really has been a joy to see how the company has grown over the past 10 years," Tober adds.

THE CAST OF AS YOU LIKE IT

In addition to Tober, the cast features Andrew Miller as Orlando, Elizabeth Ruelas as Celia, John Michnya as Jacques, Drew Palajsa as Touchstone, and Tonya Lynn as Audrey. The cast also includes: Chuck Beikert, Nicholas Benninger, Eric Davidson, Adrienne Fischer, Anthony Gullickson, and Adam Rutledge

ABOUT PITTSBURGH SHAKESPEARE IN THE PARKS

“What PSIP offers our audience is so different from what we think of as ‘typical’ theater – we use the grass, trees, woods – and bring the text to life in an exciting way, often right up in the audience’s face," Tober says. "Our style is vibrant and our language understandable; we make Shakespeare accessible to those brand new to the Bard (even tiny children) as well as seasoned theatre-goers."

Tober, a New York transplant, started the company upon arriving in 2005.  The inaugural production of As You Like Itran for two weekends in Frick Park in November, right before Thanksgiving when one show ended in light snow flurries.

“Pittsburgh had been missing outdoor Shakespeare, and thus I started the company – outdoor Shakespeare has been such a huge, and fantastic, part of my creative life for so many years,” Tober says.

ABOUT JENNIFER TOBER & LISA ANN GOLDSMITH
Tober's professional experience includes appearances at such companies as Quantum Theatre, The REP, PICT,UnSeam'd Shakespeare, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, the Shakespeare Project, and New York Classical Theatre.

Goldsmith and Tober are happy to be working together again, having both performed in UnSeam’d Shakespeare Company’s 2009 production of Macbeth 3, directed by Michael Hood.  Goldsmith is fresh off playing Rachel in Quantum Theatre’s Pantagleize as well as directing The Devil’s Arithmetic for Prime Stage Theatre.

www.pittsburghshakespeare.org
Like Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks on Facebook.
Twitter:  @Pgh Shakespeare

Bringing you free Shakespeare since 2005.
Bring a blanket, a loved one, and a thermos.

Posted on behalf of Dreamweaver Marketing Associates.  Joyce Kane is the owner of Cybertary Pittsburgh, a Virtual Administrative support company, providing virtual office support, personal and executive assistance, creative design services and light bookkeeping.  Cybertary works with businesses and busy individuals to help them work 'on' their business rather than 'in' their business.  www.Cybertary.com/Pittsburgh

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