Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s summer season is happening now with four captivating productions running July through September.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, the musical Into the Woods, by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, Pericles by William Shakespeare and George Wilkins, and “Master Harold” …and the boys by Athol Fugard.
Tickets are on sale now for the Monday Night Revels series, featuring highly acclaimed performances from vocal supergroup Rockapella, Emmy-winning comedian Brian Kiley, and the Surf City All-Stars Beach Boys tribute (all family friendly), as well as Pink Ladies of the Sonnets, a Shakespeare-inspired drag performance.
Use coupon code 3REVELS to get a 25% discount when you order tickets to any three Revels performances.
Keep reading for more details!
2025 Summer and Fall Season: “No One is Alone”
Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, directed by Jerry Lee with music direction by Luke Shepherd
Performances running July 15 – September 7. Tickets available.
Into the Woods “fits beautifully in a Shakespeare festival season. It’s rooted in heightened language. Characters soliloquize, wrestle with choices, and engage directly with the audience. Its themes run deep. The questions it raises are timeless. We wanted to craft a piece that felt organically born of the Grove. That celebrated the natural beauty of this performance space. We decided to set our production in America—Santa Cruz—at the end of the Gilded Age. Our fairy tales feel less like rustic German folklore and more like stories that have journeyed across the ocean, over the Rockies, and settled on the California coast. We wanted these characters to feel rooted in this space, like they grew here. And with one little toe still dipped in antiquity of classic fairy tales,” said director Jerry Lee.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare, directed by Paul Mullins
Performances running July 13 – August 31. Tickets available.
When A Midsummer Night’s Dream “was published in the Quarto in 1600 the title page states that the play “hath been sundry times publicly acted”. The play has continued to be “sundry times publicly acted” for these past 400 years. It is the most frequently produced of Shakespeare’s plays. For many it is the first Shakespeare play seen in performance and remains for many their favorite. Midsummer stands among Shakespeare’s greatest plays due to its astonishing blend of imagination, insight into human nature, and timeless theatrical appeal,” said director Paul Mullins.
Pericles by William Shakespeare and George Wilkins, directed by Charles Pasternak
Performances running July 29 – August 30. Tickets available.
“Pericles is one of my favorite plays. It stands powerfully with The Winter’s Tale and Cymbeline as a late triumvirate in Shakespeare’s career in which the traditional lines of comedy and tragedy blur, ambiguity is magnified, forgiveness is paramount, and miracles are possible. We need the stories of Shakespeare’s late plays now more than ever. They’re complicated, wild, sexy, and fierce… they don’t let us off the hook; they don’t let us box up good and evil easily. They ask a lot of us. But their return is great,” said director Charles Pasternak.
“Master Harold”… and the Boys by Athol Fugard, directed by Rebecca Haley Clark
Performances running Sept. 4 – Sept. 20. Tickets available.
“As we watch the massive shifts in the world rock the very foundations beneath our feet, we are confronted with a call to action: What am I going to do about all this? Working on Master Harold…and the Boys, has further solidified that gnawing question of what would I do if I were in those circumstances, the question that always reveals itself during times of immense change and social upheaval. Who am I really? This play forces us to consider three different time periods. 1950. The time period of the play itself, just after the enactment of the system of apartheid in South Africa. 1982. The time period in which the play was written, less than a decade before the official end of apartheid. And 2025. The here. The now. The crossroads. It also forces us to consider space. What does my tiny surfer beach community have to do with a tea shop in Port Elizabeth, South Africa?” said director Rebecca Haley Clark.
Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s Monday Night Revels
Tickets are on sale now for the Monday Night Revels series featuring highly acclaimed performances from Rockapella and the Surf City All-Stars Beach Boys tribute group, comedian Brian Kiley and a Shakespeare-inspired drag performance. All events are family friendly.
Use coupon code 3REVELS to get a 25% discount if you purchase tickets for three or more performances.
Rockapella, a cappella Vocal Group
Monday, July 21 at 7 p.m. Get your tickets!
Don’t miss the chance to come hear Scott, Jeff, and the rest of Rockapella right here in Santa Cruz! Formed in 1986, Rockapella rocketed to stardom in 1993 with their hit single “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?” (featured in the PBS TV series of the same name). Led by Scott Leonard’s signature high tenor voice and mind-blowing arrangements and Jeff Thacher’s one-of-a-kind vocal percussion, Rockapella has been a global phenomenon for nearly 40 years, setting the standard for all a cappella vocal groups. The “band” (famous for their ability to imitate the sounds of instruments with only their voices) has been featured everywhere from the Boston Pops to the Muppets, and their voices have been the soundtrack for everything from Folgers and Doritos to Aflac and HBO.
Brian Kiley, Emmy Award-Winning Comedian
Monday, July 28 at 7 p.m. Get your tickets!
Prepare to laugh your socks off as Brian comes to Santa Cruz! Brian Kiley is a two-time Emmy Award-winning comedian and writer who’s been a fixture in late-night TV for decades. He’s racked up nearly two dozen appearances on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and he still performs at comedy clubs around Los Angeles. For 27 years, Brian was a staff writer for Conan (and head monologue writer for more than a decade), winning an Emmy in 2007 for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy/Variety Series and getting nominated 16 times. He also worked on the final season of Ellen, picking up a Daytime Emmy in 2022. In addition, Brian has had a special on Comedy Central, and his jokes have been featured everywhere from GQ and Reader’s Digest to the New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle.
Pink Ladies of the Sonnets
Monday, August 4 at 7 p.m. Get your tickets!
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Because thou art fabulous!” Theatre is the original home of drag — the Greeks started it, but Shakespeare mastered it. Presented in collaboration with Maggie’s Gurls (a non-profit dedicated to preventing suicide among LGBTQ+ youth), experience an evening of sparkling performances by some of the Bay Area’s most talented drag queens and kings, inspired by Shakespeare’s sonnets. Attendees are encouraged to put on their best drag outfit or just come as they are. But be prepared to have a fabulous time!
Surf City All-Stars play the music of The Beach Boys
Monday, September 22 at 7 p.m. Get your tickets!
What better place to celebrate the legacy of Surf Rock than the surfing capital of the world? The Surf City All-Stars are the only “tribute” group in which every member has played in The Beach Boys’ band. Experience an unforgettable night of music featuring all the favorite Beach Boys classics, complete with those rich harmonies that made the group famous.
Learn more about these programs, ShakesEDU and more at www.santacruzshakespeare.org
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