BOULDER
Dates
July 2-August 17, 2003
Season playing in repertory
The Taming of the Shrew
Much Ado About Nothing
Hamlet
Cymbeline
Location
Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre & University Theatre, Main Stage
Both theatres are located on the Campus of the University of Colorado at Boulder
Times
8:30 p.m. in the Mary Rippon (8:00 starting time in August)
7:30 p.m. in the University Theatre, Main Stage
2:00 p.m. Sunday matinee performances in the University Theatre, Main Stage
Tickets
CSF Box Office 303-492-0554
Call for a brochure; includes a ticket order form.
4-play season subscription: $90-$138
Single tickets: $10-$50 (Discounts for students, seniors, and groups)
Box Office open:
10 a.m. - 6 p.m. Tuesday - Friday
Noon - 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday
Closed Mondays
On-line
Tickets can also be ordered on-line at www.coloradoshakes.org.
Primary Sponsor
Blue Mountain Arts
Contact
Mell McDonnell
Public Relations & Marketing Director
303-492-2783
shakespr@colorado.edu
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FAST FACTS
BEAVER CREEK/VAIL
Dates
August 21-23, 2003
The Show
Much Ado About Nothing
(The Colorado Shakespeare Festival brings its fully staged production straight from Boulder to Beaver Creek/Vail).
Location
Vilar Center for the Arts
Beaver Creek Resort
68 Avondale Lane
Beaver Creek, Colorado
Time
7:30 p.m.
Tickets
Vilar Center for the Arts at Beaver Creek
970-845-TIXS (8497)
888-920-ARTS (2787)
970-748-1396 fax
www.vilarcenter.org
Box Office open:
11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday - Saturday
Price - $44
On-line
www.coloradoshakes.org
Primary Sponsor
Blue Mountain Arts
Contact
Mell McDonnell
Public Relations & Marketing Director
In Boulder until August 21:
303-492-2783
shakespr@colorado.edu
In Beaver Creek August 21-23:
888-920-2787
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FESTIVAL ACTIVITIES
Picnic on the Green
Falstaff’s Fare
Gourmet picnic suppers provided by Breadworks of Boulder are available for $12 each. Choose from three elegant Breadworks box suppers: Grilled Salmon with Black Bean Salsa, Vietnamese Chicken Salad, or Vegetarian Tomato Basil Pasta Salad. Suppers must be ordered at least 48 hours in advance. You may pay for your supper with Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express. For information or to order, call the CSF box office at 303-492-0554
Check out Life Behind the Scenes
Backstage Tours
Get a firsthand look at behind-the-scenes elements of the Festival. Conducted by CSF company members, backstage tours include learning about the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the creation of the evening’s performance and observing the company’s before-show preparations. If time allows, there will also be an opportunity to visit the CSF historical exhibit at the CU Heritage Center. Tours, which take place at each performance from July 6-August 15, depart promptly at 6 p.m. from the CSF box office in front of the Hellems building. The cost is $5 per person, and they are free for CS Guild members, Festival contributors, and Dress Circle patrons.
CU Heritage Center Museum
Colorado Shakespeare Festival Exhibit
Take an up close look at props, stage sets, and costumes from CSF shows. The exhibit can be viewed from July 11 to August 15, 2003; Monday through Friday from 10 am to 4pm. Admission is free during regular museum hours, and pre-performance tours can be booked through CSF. For more information call 303-492-6349, or visit the museum’s website at www.cualum.org/heritage. The CU Heritage Center Museum is sponsored by the CU-Boulder Alumni Association.
Visit the Gardens
Colorado Shakespeare Gardens, Inc.
Free garden tours are presented each Tuesday and Saturday evening throughout the season beginning at 6:45 p.m. For those making a personal visit to the gardens, there are plant identification and quotation signs to aid in a personal visit to the gardens.
Fun for the Kids
Much Ado About Shakespeare Camp for Kids (ages 8-10)
Camp Shakespeare (for ages 11-18)
For more information see the Education Outreach Programs page in this press kit or call CSF Education Outreach at 303.492.1537.
Meet the Actors and Directors
Free Talkback Series
CSF presents two discussion series. Directors’ Talkbacks take place on the Green starting an hour and a half before the performance, and Actors’ Talkbacks take place immediately following the evening’s performance in the theatre. Both discussion series provide a behind-the-scenes perspective while offering patrons a chance to ask their own questions. For more information, call the CSF box office at 303-492-0554.
Dates and Times
Director’s Series (before the performance)
July 2, 2003 at 7:00 p.m.
Robin McKee director of The Taming of the Shrew
July 6, 2003 at 7:00 p.m.
Jane Page director of Much Ado About Nothing
July 12, 2003 at 7:00 p.m.
James Symons director of Hamlet
July 19, 2003 at 6:00 p.m.
Joel Fink director of Cymbeline
Actors’ Talkback Series (following the performance)
July 26, 2003: Cymbeline
(after 7:30 p.m. performances)
August 2, 2003: Much Ado About Nothing
(after 8:00 p.m. performance)
August 8, 2003: Hamlet
(after 8:00 p.m. performance)
August 15, 2003: The Taming of the Shrew
(after 8:00 p.m. performance)
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MISSION
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival has a 43-year history of excellence, producing an aesthetically challenging mix of both traditional and innovative productions of Shakespeare's plays. We are committed to:
* High professional standards of quality, diversity, and safety in all departments.
* Education through outreach, mentorship, and advocacy.
Our Company
In addition to seeking out new sources of talent, CSF serves as an ideal pre-professional training ground for actors, designers, and artisans who are finishing theatre training programs across the country. It is an integral part of our mission to maintain a talented base of professional actors, directors and designers in the company. Their presence provides mentorship and an educational experience to the non-Equity actors, stage managers and the crafts people working with these seasoned professionals. This theatre is an essential link between graduate training and professional careers for many young artists between the ages of 25-35.
We believe strongly in non-traditional casting and cultural diversity among our 40-member acting company, and in all production and management departments. It is gratifying to note that, in our 1991 through 2002 seasons, we substantially increased the racial diversity in the company.
CSF Education Outreach
An integral part of CSF is Education Outreach and its year-round commitment to provide Shakespeare education in schools and communities throughout Colorado. During the school-year, the entertaining (and edifying!) Living Shakespeare Programs promote a “hands-on” approach to the works of the Bard, invigorating the text with a modern sensibility while contemplating the universality of his themes.
In the summertime, we invite members of the community to enrich their experience of Shakespeare by participating in a variety of fun and informative activities. From the Will Power Festival in late May, to the Back Stage Tours, the Director’s Series to our Shakespeare camps for kids, CSF Education Outreach offers many opportunities for the novice—and the connoisseur—to join the CSF family.
For detailed information on CSF Education Outreach programs, see the Education Outreach Programs page in this press kit, or contact CSF Education Outreach at 303.492.1537.
Community Partnerships
CSF actively promotes partnerships with the corporate sector of our community to raise awareness of our programs and to hold ticket prices to a minimum. We continue to seek collaborative relationships with numerous social service agencies to provide artistic and entertainment services to their constituencies. We place a high priority on corporate ventures with the not-for-profit sector, particularly in helping arts organizations and individual artists to meet their goals.
Our Audience
In addition to our goal of providing audiences with opportunities to see a mix of traditional and innovative productions, we are also committed to presenting productions and programs that stimulate a new perspective on Shakespeare’s plays. The CSF audience consists of ages 5 to 85, and the Festival is promoted widely as an informal family experience. Our accompanying educational programs of classes, tours, and free lectures attract a broad mix of serious scholars and casual viewers. A major audience development goal is to broaden the ethnic diversity of our audience by attracting new segments of the population through the contacts made in our school tours and the greater racial diversity represented on stage by CSF.
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HISTORY
Starting in the 1920s, Dr. George F. Reynolds, an internationally known Elizabethan Theatre scholar, administered the Theatre Program at CU. In 1936, he helped develop the plans for the Mary Rippon Theatre. Mary Rippon was the first woman professor at the University of Colorado, and the first woman in the United States to teach at a state university. Head of the Department of Germanic Languages and Literature, she also served, without financial compensation, as Dean of Women. She was known as a kind, generous, and inspiring teacher who shared the savings from her meager salary with needy students, and whose enthusiasm for life and learning contributed to the enrichment of the entire community.
The Mary Rippon Theatre was officially completed in 1939, but no plays were staged there until 1944, when Shakespeare teacher and bibliographer James Sandoe was asked to direct a play for the coming summer. Because the Department of the Navy occupied the indoor University Theatre due to the war effort, Sandoe decided to try out the new Mary Rippon Theatre with a production of Romeo and Juliet. Over the next couple of years, he staged two more of Shakespeare's works—The Merchant of Venice in 1945, and Henry IV, Part I in 1946. The following summer, English professor Jack Crouch took over, performing on the Mary Rippon stage, a tradition that has continued unbroken. Crouch himself directed seven plays over the next ten years and founded the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in 1958, increasing the summer repertoire from one to three productions with Julius Caesar, Hamlet, and The Taming of the Shrew. He stayed on as Executive Director through the 1963 season.
Ten years later, in 1973, a record-breaking 16,931 people saw the CSF season during its run of 17 performances. And, with the production of Cymbeline in 1975, CSF completed the canon—a record-setting event; the first time that an American festival had done so.
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival of the '70's was characterized by an increased utilization of scenery to enhance the presentation of the works. In 1974, CSF veteran W. Joseph Zender was commissioned to design a unit set which would allow the shows to return to a simpler, primary setting, but by the following year his construction had disappeared, and for the next two years the plays were performed again on a platform stage. Historically, the Rippon's problematic original design has been continually altered and improved, until in 1981 Producing Artistic Director Daniel S.P. Yang engaged Richard Devin to make the Rippon space more theatrical and to create more lighting areas on the stage. The changes were dramatic, and even today the improvement of the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre continues. Not yet finished are a series of planned architectural changes that will enhance the acoustics and improve the tiring areas, while preserving this historic space.
Since Devin’s first year at The Colorado Shakespeare Festival, three important support groups were born: The Guild-dedicated to education and recruiting volunteers, The Shakespeare Garden group—annually providing the theatre’s garden with the plants mentioned in each of the season’s productions, and the Advisory Board—focused on the Festival’s fundraising efforts.
Through the help of these committed people, the CSF draws over 36,000 audience members each season. The Festival’s season features four full-scale productions, three of which are performed outdoors and one in thewell-appointed, indoor University Theatre. The annual budget is now more that $1,000,000 with 70% of this amount raised through box office receipts and other earned revenues and the rest subsidized by CU, government and corporate grants, and individual contributions.
The Festival hires 4 directors, over 40 actors, 9 designers, and more that 150 productions personnel. These, along with the small administrative staff, apprentices and volunteers, add up to nearly 200 individuals in the CSF Company. Most of them arrive in Colorado in May from diverse parts of the country and abroad to begin working. During the early rehearsal period, a typical workday for many CSF personnel begins at 8am and may wind down as late at 11pm. The majority of the company is housed in close proximity to the theatre, and many members cook and eat meals together, walk to work, and explore the town together. This a situation creates a camaraderie that results in a remarkable esprit-de-corps which translates directly to the stage.
The company is a diverse group—7% minority and 56% female. The CSF maintains a strong Equity Guest Artist Company, as well as an active roster of respected directors and designers in order to offer solid experience to the non-Equity actors, stage managers, and technicians who work with these seasoned professionals. The company serves as an ideal pre-professional training ground of actors, designers, and artisans who are completing training programs across the country; in fact, the CSF is an important link between graduate training and professional careers for many young artists between the ages of 25-35.
Over the years, the CSF has employed many actors who have gone on to become highly esteemed and visible. CSF’s 1961 production of King Lear featured Michael Moriarity in the role of Edmund. Moriarity (of television’s Law and Order) returned in 1962 to play Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet. Other popular actors have included Ted Lange (Love Boat); Annette Bening (American Beauty, The American President, Postcards from the Edge, Richard III); Joe Spano (Hill Street Blues), Jimmy Smits (L.A. Law), Karen Grassle (Little House on the Prairie), Val Kilmer as Hamlet, and, in 1994, Charles Siebert (Trapper John M.D.) as Antony and Macbeth. Many other actors who began at the CSF are known and respected as extremely successful artists in theatres throughout the country.
The early nineties brought the Festival more accolades, new works, and prominent recognition. In 1992, the CSF was named as one of the top three Shakespeare festivals in the nation by TIME Magazine. That same year, the Festival was the recipient of The Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts and the Denver Drama Critic’s Circle Award for “Best Season for a Theatre Company.” In addition, the CSF began its tradition of including a fourth production to its season. At this time, Geraldine Busse honored her late husband, David A. Busse, a respected Resident Costume Designer and Associate Professor of Theater and Dance for the University. She designed ascholarship “to attract talented people in the area of costume design and construction to both the Department of Theater and Dance and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival”.
In 1998, CSF began its 8 play series of Shakespeare’s great Wars of the Roses plays with Richard II and saw the series to completion with Richard III in 2002. This huge undertaking earned CSF the Denver Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Scenic Design, David Barber, and Best Actor in a Play, Randy Howk, both for Richard II. CSF was also nominated for ten 1998 Denver Drama Critics’ Circle Awards including Best Season for a Theatre Company, Best Play and four acting nominations.
1998 also marked the first time in the Festival’s history that a production went on tour to Vail’s Gerald R. Ford Amphitheatre. The Vail tour was so successful that it continues today, five years later, at Vilar Center for the Performing Arts in Beaver Creek.
The Festival rang in the new century with four Pinnacle awards for excellence in marketing and media, including two worldwide gold medals for the Season Brochure and Program Cover. As a tribute to its excellence, Ruth and Ken Wright funded an endowment for the Festival to hire distinguished directors every summer. Continuing its commitment to education through outreach, the Festival co-produced Cymbeline, Shakespeare’s late romance, in 2003 together with The Theatre Conservatory of Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts.
The Colorado Shakespeare Festival is active in community outreach and education year-round, with high school touring programs, workshops for secondary school students, and two summer training programs for elementary to high school age students. Many of these programs have been made possible through the generous Shakespeare Education Programs Fund, established in 1996 by Dorothy and Anthony Riddle. Debra Ordway, who often costumes as Queen Elizabeth, has also offered scholarships through her non-profit organization Beyond the Horizon. The CSF also offers a number of courses on Shakespeare through the University and publishes the educational newsletter, Preview and Insights: a Compendium of Good Ideas for Teaching Shakespeare.
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ACHIEVEMENTS & MILESTONES
* CSF draws as many as 40,000 audience members each season, 10% of whom come from outside the state of Colorado.
* The 2000 season set the record for the most sold-out performances in CSF’s history.
* The annual budget for the CSF is over $1,000,000, 70% of which is raised through box office receipts and other related incomes. The remainder of the budget is subsidized by corporate, university, and government grants, as well as individual contributions.
* Each summer CSF hires 4 directors, 9 designers, over 40 actors, and more than 150 production personnel. Including the administrative staff, apprentices, interns, and volunteers, the entire CSF company can number as many as 200. Our souvenir program profiles every member of the comapany.
* With the production of Cymbeline in 1975, CSF became the seventh theatre in the world to complete the entire Shakespearean canon of 37 plays.
* CSF’s educational programs served more than 1,200 students, 100 teachers and 26 schools this year alone.
* CSF also offers several other programs to accompany the Festival; Shakespeare Garden Tours, Green Show activities including free music and demonstrations, a free lecture/series and backstage tours.
* CSF produces four publications: Shakesperiodical, the subscriber newsletter sent two times a year; Preview, a teachers guide to the CSF season; and The Guild Gazette, a newsletter published by the CS Guild, the Festival’s volunteer support organization.
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RECOGNITION
* CSF is the second oldest Shakespeare Festival in the Country.
* CSF was named as one of the top Shakespeare Festivals in the nation by Time magazine.
* CSF was the recipient of The Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, which can only be awarded to an organization once.
* CSF has won multiple "Best of Boulder" awards for "Best Theatre Production/Play" from The Daily Camera.
* CSF was the recipient of numerous International Festivals and Events Association’s Pinnacle awards. In 2000, we received four Pinnacle awards for excellence in marketing and media, including two worldwide gold medals for the Season Brochure and Program Cover. In 1999, CSF received awards for Best Season Brochure and Best Festival-Marked Clothing.
* CSF was voted the Best Theatre Production of 1999 for the Boulder Gold Reader’s Choice Awards.
* CSF received Westword’s "Best of Denver 1997" awards for Best Costume, Bruce McInroy for The Would-Be-Gentleman; Best Shakespearean Mini-series for CSF’s Troilus and Cressida.
* CSF won the 1998 Denver Drama Critics’ Circle Awards for Best Scenic Design, David Barber and Best Actor in a Play, Randy Howk, both for Richard II.
* CSF was nominated for ten 1998 Denver Drama Critics’ Circle Awards including Best Season for a Theatre Company, Best Play and four acting nominations.
* CSF composer and musical director, David B. Wohl of Fort Collins received a special award from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for his music and sound design for CSF’s 1997 production of The Would-Be-Gentleman.
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SPONSORS
PRIMARY SPONSOR
BLUE MOUNTAIN ARTS
PRODUCING PARTNERS
QUALCOMM
WRIGHT WATER ENGINEERS, INC
TESSER
UofC FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
PRODUCT PARTNERS
ELDORADO NATURAL SPRINGS WATER
STARBUCKS
BOULDER ICE CREAM
LEFT HAND & TABERNASH BREWING COMPANIES
MILLENNIUM HARVEST HOUSE
LIQUOR MART
BREADWORKS
CORPORATE PARTNERS
ROCHE COLORADO
WELLS FARGO
GOLD LAKE MOUNTAIN RESORT & SPA
MEDIA DEL'ARTE
SHAKESPEARE'S PUB & BILLIARD PARLOR
RHUMBA
MEDIA SPONSORS
THE DAILY CAMERA
KUVO
KUNC
We are grateful to the following sponsors for their support of the
CSF performances in Beaver Creek/Vail, Colorado.
VAIL DAILY
BEAVER CREEK WEST
KVBA-TV8
The CSF Season and year-round education programs, including the Living Shakespeare secondary schools program, the Will Power elementary school program, the Free Tickets for Kids program, the Shakespeare Summer School in-reach programs, and the Preview and Insights educational publications, are provided to the State of Colorado through generous grants from:
THE COLORADO COUNCIL ON THE ARTS, a state agency funded by the Colorado General Assembly
and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency
THE BOULDER ARTS COMMISSION, an agency of the Boulder City Council
THE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION SERVING BOULDER COUNTY
THE CU BOULDER OUTREACH FUND
THE COLORADO SHAKESPEARE GUILD
THE ANTHONY AND DOROTHY RIDDLE ENDOWMENT
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BOULDER - CALENDAR LISTINGS
July:
Wednesday 2-Preview Taming of the Shrew, 8:30
Thursday 3-Preview Much Ado About Nothing, 8:30
Friday 4-No Show
Saturday 5-Opening Night Taming of the Shrew, 8:30
Sunday 6- Opening Night Much Ado About Nothing, 8:30
Monday 7- No Show
Tuesday 8-No Show
Wednesday 9-Taming of the Shrew, 8:30
Thursday 10-Much Ado About Nothing, 8:30
Friday 11-Preview Hamlet, 8:30
Saturday 12-Opening Night Hamlet, 8:30
Sunday 13-Taming of the Shrew, 8:30
Monday 14-No Show
Tuesday 15-Much Ado About Nothing, 8:30
Wednesday 16-Hamlet, 8:30
Thursday 17-Taming of the Shrew, 8:30
Friday 18-Preview Cymbeline,7:30; Hamlet, 8:30
Saturday 19-Opening Night Cymbeline, 8:30
Sunday 20-Much Ado About Nothing, 8:30
Monday 21- No Show
Tuesday 22-Taming of the Shrew, 8:30
Wednesday 23-Cymbeline, 7:30; Hamlet, 8:30
Thursday 24-Much Ado About Nothing, 8:30
Friday 25-Cymbeline, 7:30; Taming of the Shrew, 8:30
Saturday 26-Cymbeline, 7:30; Hamlet, 8:30
Sunday 27-Cymbeline, 2:00; Taming of the Shrew, 8:30
Monday 28- No Show
Tuesday 29-Much Ado About Nothing, 8:30
Wednesday 30-Cymbeline 7:30; Taming of the Shrew, 8:30
Thursday 31-Hamlet, 8:30
August:
Friday 1-Cymbeline, 7:30; Taming of the Shrew, 8:00
Saturday 2-Much Ado About Nothing, 8:00
Sunday 3-Cymbeline, 2:00; Hamlet, 8:00
Monday 4- No Show
Tuesday 5- Much Ado About Nothing, 8:00
Wednesday 6-Taming of the Shrew, 8:00
Thursday 7-Much Ado About Nothing, 8:00
Friday 8-Cymbeline, 7:30; Hamlet, 8:00
Saturday 9-Cymbeline, 7:30; Taming of the Shrew, 8:00
Sunday 10-Cymbeline, 2:00; Much Ado About Nothing, 8:00
Monday 11-No Show
Tuesday 12-Cymbeline, 7:30; Taming of the Shrew, 8:00
Wednesday 13-Much Ado About Nothing, 8:00
Thursday 14-Cymbeline, 7:30; Hamlet, 8:00
Friday 15-Cymbeline, 7:30; Taming of the Shrew, 8:00
Saturday 16-Much Ado About Nothing, 8:00
Sunday 17-Hamlet, 8:00
**Please note that in Boulder, The Taming of the Shrew, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet are performed in the Mary Rippon Outdoor Theatre. Cymbeline is performed on the Main Stage of the University Theatre, indoors.
***The following are dates for the Director’s Series:
Wednesday, July 2- Taming of the Shrew, 7:00
Sunday, July 6-Much Ado About Nothing, 7:00
Saturday, July 12-Hamlet, 7:00
Saturday, July 19-Cymbeline, 6:00
***The following are dates for the Talkback series:
Saturday, July 26-Cymbeline, 10:00
Saturday, August 2-Much Ado About Nothing, 10:30
Friday, August 8-Hamlet, 11:00
Friday, August 15-Taming of the Shrew, 10:30
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VAIL/BEAVER CREEK - CALENDAR LISTINGS
August:
Thursday 21-Much Ado About Nothing, 7:30
Friday 22-Much Ado About Nothing, 7:30
Saturday 23-Much Ado About Nothing, 7:30
** Much Ado About Nothing is the only show to be performed in Vail. It will be shown in the Vilar Center for the Performing Arts.
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