Colorado Shakespeare Festival announces 2019 cast, featuring Festival favorites and a Broadway veteran
This week, the Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CSF) announced its complete cast for the 2019 season: a diverse ensemble made up of local Colorado artists, new faces from across the country and several acclaimed musicians to bring its season of Shakespeare’s most popular plays to life onstage.
In the outdoor cast, Gareth Saxe returns to CSF for the first time since 1998 as Malvolio in “Twelfth Night” and Friar Laurence in “Romeo and Juliet.” Saxe is a veteran of New York theatre. His Broadway credits include the Drama Desk-winning revival of “The Homecoming” with Ian McShane and Michael McKean, Scar in “The Lion King” and George Bernard Shaw’s “Heartbreak House” with Swoozie Kurtz and Philip Bosco.
Many of last summer’s festival favorites—including Rodney Lizcano, Anne Penner, Marco Robinson and Amber Scales—will return for major roles on the Mary Rippon stage, notably Scales as Viola in “Twelfth Night” and Penner in the role of Mercutio in “Romeo and Juliet.” Both Romeo and Juliet will be performed by actors making their CSF debut: Dante Rossi will play Romeo (as well as Sebastian in “Twelfth Night”) and Madison Hart will play Juliet (and Antonia in “Twelfth Night”).
Indoors, Emily Van Fleet, a familiar face to both DCPA and Arvada Center audiences, returns for her third CSF season as two female leads: Rosalind in “As You Like It” and Kate Middleton in Mike Bartlett’s “King Charles III: A Future History Play.” Josh Innerst and Shunté Lofton, two actors coming to CSF from the acting company at the American Shakespeare Center, will both hold major roles in the indoor season. John Hutton, last seen at CSF in “Equivocation” and “Cymbeline” in 2016, also returns for his third season as the Prince of Wales in “King Charles III.”
The 2019 Colorado Shakespeare Festival season will feature original live music in two of its productions. Rinde Eckert, composer of the original music for “Twelfth Night,” can be seen onstage as Feste. Sam Misner—of Misner & Smith—will compose an Americana score to be performed by the ensemble cast of “As You Like It.”
Leslie O’Carroll, Seth Dhonau, siblings Sam and Anne Sandoe, and others will also return to the festival stage in June, which was cast by Sylvia Gregory, CSA. For complete cast lists, please see the event pages for each production.
The casting announcement is part of Producing Artistic Director Timothy Orr’s continued mission to diversify the CSF artistic company at every level.
“I believe our stages should represent our community and country. They should reflect us,” said Orr. “It’s something we continually strive for at CSF.”
The 2019 season begins Friday, June 7, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 11. Tickets are available online, over the phone at 303-492-8008 and weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the CU Presents Box Office.