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Center Valley, PA: April 3, 2024—Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival is pleased to announce its receipt of a $25,000 grant from Air Products to support several programs this summer including its “Play On!” Community Tour, the Main Stage production of the musical The Color Purple, and the main sponsor for PSF’s Community Day on
July 6.
Since 1995, Air Products has been a dedicated supporter of Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, sponsoring various programs including children’s theatre productions, “On the Green” pre-show performances, Main Stage productions, and the annual Luminosity Gala. They’ve also played a significant role in notable “firsts” for the Festival, such as sponsoring the first outdoor offerings of A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Charlotte’s Web in 2021 at the Air Products Open Air Theatre. In 2023, Air Products partnered with Crayola to support the inaugural “Play On!” Community Tour. This year, Air Products continues its steadfast support of the tour and will be the main sponsor of Community Day on July 6. Moreover, they will Co-sponsor the musical The Color Purple and sponsor the 2024 Luminosity Gala. “We extend our deepest gratitude for their ongoing commitment to our mission and community,” says Jason King Jones Artistic Director.
As previously announced, this summer the “Play On!” Community Tour will present William Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors in libraries, parks, and community centers throughout the region May 31 to June 16. Patrons can attend these performances for free thanks to the Sponsors Air Products and Crayola, as well as the Co-sponsor Joanne Hartshorne.
The following locations will host the production on tour:
Friday, May 31, 12pm- ArtsWalk Pocket Park
Saturday, June 1, 12pm- National Museum of Industrial History
Sunday, June 2, 2pm- Union Terrace Amphitheatre
Tuesday, June 4, 6pm- Historic Bethlehem Museum & Sites at Burnside Plantation
Wednesday, June 5- TBD
Thursday, June 6, 6pm- Allentown Public Library
Friday, June 7, 6pm- Lower Macungie-Hills at Lockridge Park
Saturday, June 8, 11am-Easton Farmer’s Market
Sunday, June 9, 5pm- DeSales University
Tuesday, June 11- TBD
Wednesday, June 12, 6pm- Bethlehem Area Public Library
Thursday, June 13, 6:30pm- Kutztown Park Bandshell
Friday, June 14, 6pm- Victory Park Amphitheater
Saturday, June 15, 3pm- Peddler’s Village
Sunday, June 16, 3pm- Peddler’s Village
The Festival will host its 2nd annual Community Day event on Saturday, July 6, 2024. 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. More details will be shared in upcoming announcements, on social media, and at pashakespeare.org.
The Festival’s 2024 Season Sponsors are Lee and Dolly Butz. The Associate Season Sponsors are Linda Lapos and Paul Wirth, Kathleen Kund Nolan and Timothy E. Nolan, The Szarko Family, and Harry C. Trexler Trust.
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, the official Shakespeare Festival of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, features acclaimed actors from Broadway, television, and film, and is the summer home to over 200 artists from around the country, including winners and nominees of the Tony, Obie, Emmy, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Jefferson, and Barrymore Awards.
The 2024 Summer Season—May 29 to August 4, 2024
“Play On!” Community Tour:
May 31 to June 16
The Comedy of Errors
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Jessica Bedford
On the Main Stage:
PSF presents 1812 Productions:
The Play That Goes Wrong
May 29 to June 16
By Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, & Jonathan Sayer
Directed by Jennifer Childs
The Merry Wives of Windsor
June 26 to July 7
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Matt Pfeiffer
The Color Purple
July 17 to August 4
Book by Marsha Norman
Music & Lyrics by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis, and Stephen Bray
Directed by Amina Robinson
In the Schubert Theatre:
The Last Five Years
June 12 to June 30
Written and Composed by Jason Robert Brown
Directed by Jason King Jones
Cymbeline
July 24 to August 4
By William Shakespeare
“Extreme Shakespeare”
Children’s Theatre Productions:
Winnie-the-Pooh & Friends | Schubert Theatre
July 5 to August 3
Adapted by Jason King Jones | Directed by Jenna Place
Shakespeare for Kids (S4K) presents Twelfth Night | Main Stage
July 24 to August 3By
Erin Sheffield | Directed by Matt Pfeiffer
S4K Mini Tour:
Friday, July 26th at Allentown Public Library
Saturday, July 27th at Lower Macungie Library
Wednesday, July 31st at Bucks County Free Library (Quakertown Branch)
Thursday, August 1st at Hellertown Area Library
Visit pashakespeare.org for the most current information and to sign-up to receive emails for future announcements.
Single tickets, subscriptions, and packages can be purchased online at pashakespeare.org, or by calling the box office at 610.282.WILL [9455], ext. 1, or in person at the Labuda Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of DeSales University, in Center Valley, PA.
Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival Artistic Leadership
Jason King Jones, Artistic Director
Casey William Gallagher, Managing 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 The New York Times, which 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 32 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
