Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival’s 20th Anniversary season May 28, 2009

Artistic Director Christopher Gaze is pleased to announce that Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival’s 20th Anniversary season will run May 28 to September 26, 2009 under the familiar red & white tents in Vancouver’s Vanier Park.

The season will open with the powerful tragedy OTHELLO enjoying its first staging at the Festival during its two-decade history. In the 520-seat Mainstage tent, Dean Paul Gibson returns after a year’s hiatus (Romeo and Juliet 2007) to stage this great tale of jealousy and deception. The production will be reflected through the silhouette of the Italian Renaissance. Playing in repertory with Othello in the big tent is the deliciously farcical THE COMEDY OF ERRORS. David Mackay, who conceived last season’s hugely popular 1920’s version of Twelfth Night, will direct. This hilarious comedy will be set in the Elizabethan period with a tongue-in-cheek approach to all things Shakespearean. In the intimate 240-seat Douglas Campbell Studio Stage tent, Rachel Ditor makes her Bard directorial debut to stage the romantic drama ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. Ms Ditor will give the play a fresh take by placing it in a Victorian setting where sensuous passions hide behind a façade of moral propriety. Rounding out the Studio Stage program is the great history play RICHARD II directed by Bard Artistic Associate Christopher Weddell. The first play in Bard’s 3-year THE KINGS History Cycle, Richard II will be rooted in the medieval period but stylized with modern overtones.

Official Website: http://www.bardonthebeach.org