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Center Valley, PA: March 28, 2023—Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (PSF) launches its inaugural “Play On!” community touring program with Shakespeare’s classic comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream performing in libraries, parks, and community centers throughout the region June 2 to June 18. These free performances will be an opportunity for everyone to enjoy Shakespeare’s hilarious mash-up of mistaken lovers, mischievous fairies, and amateur thespians. A dream come true for all ages and free to enjoy this summer, in part, from its Sponsors Air Products and Crayola; and Co-sponsor Joanne Hartshorne. The tour will be presented at the following locations:
Downtown Allentown ArtsWalk Pocket Park | Friday, June 2, 12:30pm
Scott Park, Easton Farmer’s Market | Saturday, June 3, 11:00am
Lehigh Valley Children’s Festival, Allentown Arts Park | Saturday, June 3, 2:00pm
National Museum of Industrial History, Bethlehem | Sunday June 4, 1:00pm
Allentown Public Library | Tuesday, June 6, Time TBD
Bucks County Courthouse Lawn, Brown Bag-It with the Arts | Wednesday, June 7, 12:00pm
Moravian Village, Bethlehem | June 13, 11:00am
Bethlehem Area Public Library | Wednesday, June 14, 6:00pm
Hills at Lockridge, Lower Macungie Township | Thursday, June 15, 6:00pm
Peddler’s Village, Lahaska, PA | Saturday, June 17, 2:00pm
(Other Touring Locations, TBD)
The Festival will also host its inaugural Community Day event on Saturday, July 1, 2023. The event will take place on the Center Valley campus of DeSales University in front of the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts. PSF’s Community Day will celebrate the arts as well as the many local organizations that provide invaluable services to this community. “We are excited to collaborate and partner with local businesses to present a day full of fun, food, live performances, and more for the entire family,” says Jason King Jones Artistic Director.
The event will begin at 10am with children’s programming including story times, arts and crafts, and a meet and greet with the cast of PSF’s James and the Giant Peach. The rest of the event will kick-off at noon with food trucks, information tables, and more. The community resource area will feature organizations and programs spanning health, creative arts, and accessibility services.
The day will also feature several family-friendly performances including an encore performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on the outdoor Trexler Library stage at 3pm (free), and at 6:30pm, there will be a ticketed performance of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again]; and PSF’s production of the hit musical In The Heights will have two ticketed performances at 2pm and 7:30pm in the Main Stage theatre.
More details will be shared in upcoming announcements, on social media, and at pashakespeare.org.
The 2023 Season Sponsors are Yvonne Payne and Edward Spitzer. The Associate Season Sponsors are Douglas Dykhouse, Linda Lapos and Paul Wirth, Kathleen Kund Nolan and Timothy E. Nolan, The Szarko Family, and Harry C. Trexler Trust.
Summer Season 2023:
“Play On!” Community Tour: Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream performing in several locations throughout the Lehigh Valley (June 2 to June 18).
Community Day (Saturday, July 1: 10am to 10:30pm)
Schubert Theatre: Henry IV, Part 2 (May 31 to June 11); James and the Giant Peach (July 7 to Aug 5); Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (July 19 to August 6).
Main Stage: In the Heights (June 14 to July 2); The Tempest (July 12 to August 6); Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (July 20 to August 5); Shakespeare for Kids (July 26 to August 5).
Bard Outdoors: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again] (June 28 to July 16).
Single tickets, subscriptions, and packages are on sale now and can be purchased online at pashakespeare.org, by calling the Box Office at 610.282.WILL [9455], or in person at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of DeSales University.
Artistic Leadership: Jason King Jones, Artistic Director; Casey William Gallagher, Managing Director; Dennis Razze, Associate Artistic Director
About Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival is the only professional Equity theatre of its scope and scale within a 50-mile radius. PSF is one of only a handful of theatres on the continent producing Shakespeare, musicals, classics, and contemporary plays, all of which can normally be seen in repertory and in multiple spaces within a few visits in a single summer season. Similarly, PSF was among just a handful of theatres on the continent in recent summers to produce three Shakespeare plays in a single summer season. A patron would have to travel seven to nine hours from PSF to find a comparable range of offerings at a single theatre within a few weeks’ time.
The Festival’s award-winning company of many world-class artists includes Broadway, film, and television veterans, and winners and nominees of the Tony, Emmy, Obie, Outer Critics Circle, Drama Desk, Jefferson, Hayes, Lortel, and Barrymore awards. A leading Shakespeare theatre with a national reputation for excellence, PSF has received coverage in The Washington Post, NPR, American Theatre Magazine, Playbill.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and in recent seasons The New York Times has identified PSF as one of the leading summer theatre festivals in the nation. “A world-class theater experience on a par with the top Bard fests,” is how one New York Drama Desk reviewer characterized PSF.
Founded in 1992 and the Official Shakespeare Festival of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, PSF’s mission is to enrich, inspire, engage, and entertain the widest possible audience through first-rate productions of classical and contemporary plays, with a core commitment to Shakespeare and other master dramatists, and through an array of education and mentorship programs. A not-for-profit theatre, PSF receives significant support from its host, DeSales University, from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Traditionally, with 150 performances over ten weeks, the Festival attracts patrons each summer from 30+ states. In 30 years, PSF has offered 200+ total productions (82 Shakespeare), and entertained 1,000,000+ patrons from 50 states, now averaging 34,000-40,000 in attendance each summer season, plus another 13,000 students each year through its WillPower Tour to schools. PSF is a multi-year recipient of awards from the National Endowment for the Arts: Shakespeare in American Communities, and is a constituent of Theatre Communications Group, and the Shakespeare Theatre Association (STA). In 2013, leaders of the world’s premiere Shakespeare theatres gathered at PSF as the Festival hosted the international STA Conference. The Festival’s vision is for world-class theatre.
Information provided to TVL by:
Tina Louise Slak
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival
The Professional Theatre at DeSales University
2755 Station Avenue
Center Valley, PA 18034
p: 610-282-WILL [9455]
www.pashakespeare.org
