“Madness in great ones must not unwatched go.”

--HAMLET

“Love is merely a madness.”

-AS YOU LIKE IT

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Austin, TX – After the last three unprecedented seasons in which ASF garnered sixty-eight (68) Austin Critic’s Table and B. Iden Payne award nominations for theatrical excellence, including awards for Best Production three years in a row, ASF is primed to continue that winning tradition providing a thrilling, romantic, and hilarious season of classical theatre. Journey with us, exploring the depths of passion, the heights of madness and the “very ecstasy of love.” ASF Artistic Director Guy Roberts says, “The Austin Shakespeare Festival is thrilled to announce its 2005-06 Season of MADNESS. This is the most exciting season in ASF’s history – we are presenting four beloved favorites from the Classical repertoire and have assembled what I believe to be the finest ASF artistic company and acting ensemble in recent memory. I invite everyone to join us as we celebrate Lovers and Madmen.”

     HAMLET, the greatest play ever written, opens our 2005-06 Season and plays November 11 – 27, 2005 at the Austin Playhouse. Fresh from his recent Austin Critic’s Table and B. Iden Payne Award-winning performance of Iago in last season’s OTHELLO, ASF Artistic Director Guy Roberts takes the boards as Hamlet and directs a company of Austin’s most exciting and daring actors including favorites Dirk van Allen as Polonius and the Gravedigger, Michael Costello as the Ghost and Player King, Sarah Johnson as Ophelia, Patricia Pearcy as Gertrude, Rob Matney as Horatio and two of the newest members of the ASF company of actors: Geoff Pearson as Laertes and British Stage Star Matthew Radford as the “smiling damned villain” Claudius. Murder, incest, espionage and love take center stage in the production ASF audiences have been asking to see for years.

     ASF is pleased to present Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s 17^th Century comic masterpiece of the Restoration Stage THE RIVALS, playing in rotating repertory with the story of the most charismatic villain ever to command the stage: Shakespeare’s RICHARD III from February 23 to March 19, 2006 at the Austin Playhouse. Anyone interested in beautiful clothes, devastating wit and the chaos of romance should not miss Sheridan’s hilarious story of just how much trouble some people get into when falling in love. Deformed in body and spirit, RICHARD III is the play and the man audiences have loved to hate for over 400 years. Driven by ambition and haunted by nightmares and a chorus of Queens (Babs George as Elizabeth, Sarah Johnson as Anne, Patricia Pearcy as Margaret and Bernadette Nason as the Duchess), Richard (Guy Roberts who also directs) will ruthlessly destroy anyone who stands in his way. Joining Guy and his Queens in RICHARD III are ASF favorites: Dirk van Allen as King Edward, Matthew Radford as Buckingham, Kyle Evans as Clarence, Ian Manners as Hastings, Aaron D. Alexander as Richmond and Marc Pouhé as Tyrell among others. THE RIVALS is directed by the B. Iden Payne award-winning directing duo of Guy Roberts and Ian Manners and among others stars Matthew Radford as the dashing Jack Absolute, Andrea Osborn as his beloved Lydia, Dirk van Allen as Jack’s father Sir Anthony Absolute, Marc Pouhé as the irrepressible Sir Lucius O’Trigger, Rob Matney as the good-natured Acres, Guy Roberts as the frenzied Faulkland, Sarah Johnson as his patient lover Julia, and in the performance everyone has been waiting for: Bernadette Nason as the unfathomable Mrs. Malaprop.

     We have saved the best for last! ASF is proud to present the American Premiere of a new version of AS YOU LIKE IT featuring original music by the Barenaked Ladies playing April 28 – May 28, 2006 as our Free-Shakespeare-Under-the-Stars at the Sheffield Hillside Theatre in Zilker Park. Originally commissioned by the Stratford Festival, Canada, the Barenaked Ladies’ irresistible and delightful compositions for AS YOU LIKE IT are the perfect compliment to Shakespeare’s joyous celebration of the liberating power of love and the redeeming spirit of nature. Directed by Guy Roberts (who also plays the melancholy Jaques), Jill Blackwood, returning to the Zilker stage after her triumphant and award-winning performance as Helena in last season’s Dream, stars as Rosalind and leads an All-Star cast that includes among others: Rick Roemer as Duke Senior/Duke Frederick, Kelsey Kling as Celia, Robert Deike as Touchstone, Sarah Johnson as Phebe, Aaron D. Alexander as Orlando, David Stokey as Oliver, Rommel Sulit as Silvius and Brian Coughlin singing those great songs as Amiens.