Colorado Shakespeare Festival announces 2022 lineup, featuring themes of love, friendship and folly
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival (CSF) has released the lineup for its 2022 season, playing June 5 to Aug. 7. The season features Shakespeare’s “The Two Gentlemen of Verona,” “All’s Well That Ends Well,” and “Coriolanus,” as well as two non-Shakespeare works: Lauren Gunderson’s “The Book of Will” and Ben Jonson’s “The Alchemist.”
“Every season is nothing but new elements from top to bottom,” said Producing Artistic Director Tim Orr. “That’s the fun part of coming to the Colorado Shakespeare Festival! But we have some especially exciting things in the works for 2022 that don’t happen very often here.”
Director Carolyn Howarth returns to kick off the summer season with “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” opening at the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre on June 5. Set in this production in mid-century modern Italy, it tells the story of two best friends who find themselves in pursuit of the same woman while traveling in Milan.
Also outdoors will be “The Book of Will,” a play by Lauren Gunderson that received its world premiere at the Denver Center in 2017. It tells the true story of Shakespeare’s friends as they work to publish his plays following his death. CSF veteran Rodney Lizcano—most recently seen as Oberon in 2021’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”—is set to direct.
“‘The Book of Will’ is the perfect Shakespearean festival companion piece. The play is a ‘love letter’ to all theatre folk, actors and audiences alike,” said Lizcano, who performed in the show’s original cast in 2017.
On June 19, CSF will kick off its indoor season, presenting the plays it originally slated for the canceled 2020 season. “All’s Well That Ends Well”, directed by CSF Managing Director Wendy Franz, tells a coming-of-age tale that explores issues of appearances, class and gender set against the stylized backdrop of 1950s France.
CSF’s indoor season will be completed with one of Shakespeare’s ancient Roman war plays, directed by Anthony Powell. “Coriolanus” grapples with timely themes of democracy and political power. The play was last performed at CSF in 1995.
“It’s a wild script,” said Powell. “It’s part political satire, part portrait of a man so deeply broken and conflicted that he can no longer navigate his way through normal society.”
Finally, Kevin Rich will direct the performance of CSF’s Original Practices production “The Alchemist” by Ben Jonson. A contemporary of Shakespeare’s and a featured character in “The Book of Will,” Jonson’s work will round out the summer with a fresh perspective on plays written during the Elizabethan era.
The 2022 season begins Sunday, June 5, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 7. Season tickets are available beginning Oct. 25 at coloradoshakes.org, over the phone at 303-492-8008 and weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the CU Presents Box Office. Single tickets will be available beginning Nov. 29.
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival plans to offer all events in-person and at full capacity. If any different requirements are necessary, the festival plans to announce them in the spring. Event plans for the 2022 season are subject to the permissible event guidelines from public health officials and the University of Colorado that will be in place at the time of the performances.
For media inquiries contact:
Becca Vaclavik, CU Presents assistant director of public relations
becca.vaclavik@colorado.edu
303-492-1137