It’s the final weekend to see “The Taming of the Shrew,” “King Lear” and Lauren Gunderson’s “The Book of Will” in the Grove at DeLaveaga, but an expanded five-production season is in the works for Santa Cruz Shakespeare next year.
Santa Cruz Shakespeare
Posted inCity Life
Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s stunning ambition: Company goes big with five productions in 2024
“Hamlet” — which co-artistic director Charles Pasternak calls “the world’s most famous play” — headlines next year’s season, with an announcement made Monday at the company’s DeLaveaga Park home. But the big news: five productions — the most ever by a company that can claim four decades of performance — and only two of them are Shakespeare’s. The works of Oscar Wilde, Tennessee Williams and Charles Dickens complete the 2024 playbill.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
As old guard passes baton on Santa Cruz arts scene, how will new leaders weather generational shift?
Many of the steady hands that have guided the likes of the Cabrillo Festival and Santa Cruz Shakespeare for years are stepping down even as the performing arts are at a crossroads nationally. There’s no guarantee it will be business as usual as a diverse group of millennials and Gen Z makes up larger shares of potential audiences, and whatever comes next will be fascinating to watch.
Posted inCity Life
Santa Cruz Shakespeare shines as Bard’s buds compile ‘Book of Will’
Lauren Gunderson’s “The Book of Will,” the story of two actors and friends of Shakespeare who take it upon themselves to collect all of Shakespeare’s plays, is perfectly at home in the Grove at DeLaveaga it only seems as though it was written for Santa Cruz Shakespeare to perform.
Posted inCity Life
Don’t sleep on Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s ‘Shrew’ this summer
Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s 2023 season is in full swing, but with high-profile productions of “King Lear” and “The Book of Will” also on the slate, it would be easy to overlook “The Taming of the Shrew.” That would be a mistake, Wallace Baine writes.
Posted inCity Life
With one foot in the past and another in the future, Santa Cruz Shakespeare presents a pivotal season of theater
“The Book of Will” opens the summer this week for Shakespeare Santa Cruz, with “The Taming of the Shrew” and “King Lear” to follow as the company marks a change of artistic directors, the return of a local acting legend and a renewed focus on expanding the audience for the Bard of Avon.
Posted inCoast Life
Fundraising plea signals storm clouds for Oregon Shakespeare Festival
Santa Cruz Shakespeare flourished with a comeback season in 2022, but the effects of the pandemic and inflation that have rippled through other local organizations are being felt at the West Coast’s live-theater crown jewel. The Oregon Shakespeare Festival says it needs $1.5 million by June for its 2023 season to continue, and it’s put a hold on planning for 2024.
Posted inCity Life
It’s Two Gents of DeLaveaga for Santa Cruz Shakespeare with changing of guard atop company
Longtime artistic director Mike Ryan, a steady hand in Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s transition from UC Santa Cruz to DeLaveaga Park, is sharing that role with Charles Pasternak, himself a familiar face to local theatergoers, this summer. After that, it’s Pasternak’s ship to steer. “I see my role in expansion as a sort of daring but careful one,” he says of what’s to come.
Posted inCity Life
With Jewel prepared to take final bow, what’s the future of theater, other performing arts in Santa Cruz?
Where Jewel Theatre Company struggled to revive its audience numbers after the COVID shutdown, Santa Cruz Shakespeare had a banner season in 2022. Indoors vs. outdoors is certainly a factor, but what of shifting demographics, economics, attention spans in the smartphone age? And is there a secret sauce in local audiences’ tolerance for new or unfamiliar styles? Wallace Baine explores.
Posted inCity Life
A clown at heart, actor Patty Gallagher ‘works like a demon’ on Santa Cruz stages
Patty Gallagher went back to her childhood to capture Corita Kent for Jewel Theatre’s new production — and found a surprise connection to her character. Esteemed for her work by her peers and much of her audience, Gallagher pays tribute to the support she’s received. “My colleagues have supported and loved me into an artistic career,” she says. “I have this enormous karmic debt to UCSC and to Santa Cruz as an artistic community.”
