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Center Valley, PA: May 21, 2023—Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival is pleased to announce its partnership with Air Products and Crayola to support its free performances for the upcoming “Play On!” Community Tour. As previously announced, the tour will present William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in libraries, parks, and community centers throughout the region June 2 to June 18. Patrons can attend these performances for free thanks to the Sponsors Air Products and Crayola, as well as the Co-sponsor Joanne Hartshorne.
“With great partnerships we accomplish great things. Air Products and Crayola’s sponsorship of this first-ever tour is a fantastic gift for our community. It means that people across the Valley can experience PSF’s work at no cost in their own backyard,” says Jason King Jones Artistic Director.
The following locations will host the production on tour:
- Downtown Allentown, ArtsWalk Pocket Park | Friday, June 2, 12:30pm
- Easton Farmer’s Market, Scott Park | Saturday, June 3, 11:00am
- Allentown Arts Park, Lehigh Valley Children’s Festival | Saturday, June 3, 2:00pm
- National Museum of Industrial History, Bethlehem |Sunday, June 4, 1:00pm
- Allentown Public Library | Tuesday, June 6, 6:00pm
- Bucks County Courthouse Lawn, Brown Bag-It with the Arts | Wednesday, June 7, 12:00pm
- James Lutheran Church, Coopersburg | Thursday, June 8, 6:00pm
- George School, Newtown | Sunday, June 11, 4:00pm
- Moravian Village, Bethlehem | Tuesday, June 13, 11:00a
- Bethlehem Area Public Library | Wednesday, June 14, 6:00pm
- Hills at Lockridge, Lower Macungie Township | Thursday, June 15, 6:00pm
- Peddler’s Village, Lahaska | Saturday, June 17, 2:00pm
(Other Touring Locations, TBD)
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 the 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).
Outdoor Trexler Library Stage: 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
