Great River Shakespeare Festival Begins

“This season’s productions celebrate what it means to gather as a community, the tyranny of plotting against those we perceive having wronged us, and the difficulty of taking action when the truth is uncertain,” commented Artistic Director Doug Scholz-Carlson. Hamlet and Much Ado about Nothing are among the most popular tragedies and and comedies in western drama. This summer marks the second time that GRSF has staged Hamlet and the third mounting for Much Ado about Nothing. The production of Hamlet has been in the works for the last six years as a collaboration between director Scholz-Carlson and long-time acting company member, Tarah Flanagan, who will be playing Hamlet. Flanagan has proven herself to festival audiences as an expert interpreter of Shakespearean language, and the role of Hamlet is one of the most complex in the Shakespeare canon. Females have played Hamlet for centuries, sometimes as a male character and sometimes (as Danish legend purports) as a woman. As an actor, Flanagan is excited to discover where Hamlet’s criticism of the female characters comes from given how few choices the text gives them in directing their own lives.

Much Ado about Nothing is directed by Gaby Rodriguez, a director, dramaturg, teacher, and storyteller from Houston, TX and Santiago de Cuba. Rodriguez was an assistant director at the festival in 2017 and 2018. She recently completed a directing residency at Asolo Repertory and will begin a graduate program in theater management at Yale University in the fall. “This production of Much Ado will place young people at the center of the story. As the ones that save the day and the ones that represent the future of the community,” Rodriguez explained. She has cast four local young actors who have trained in the GRSF Shakespeare for Young Actors program to play the Watch. “The neighborhood watch are the young people who see it all from the outside by are dismissed by the adults. Shakespeare writes: ‘What your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light.’” Reminiscent of the Mosquito Patrol in her native Cuba, the youth are needed to teach the adults what they cannot see because of their pride, insecurity, and overwhelming tasks.

The GRSF season is sponsored through generous in-kind support of Winona State University, a grant from the Margaret H. and James E. Kelley Foundation, and the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board Operating Support grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund. Hamlet is sponsored by Char & Bill Carlson, Kathy & Dave Christenson, and Margaret & Bruce Johnson. Much Ado about Nothing is sponsored by Thern Stage Equipment and the Shakespeare Fund of the Theater League of Kansas City. GRSF receives technical sponsorship from HBC and the ticket office is sponsored by Dahl Toyota. More than 600 other households, businesses, and foundations support the festival annually. Without this financial support, its professional productions would not be possible.

Performances run Wednesdays through Sundays from June 27 through July 28. A full schedule
is available at grsf.org where tickets may also be purchased online. To reach the festival by
phone, call (507) 474-7900.

Great River Shakespeare Festival is a nonprofit, professional theater company in Winona, MN, operating under an agreement with Actors’ Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States. The festival enriches people’s lives by creating dynamic, clearly understood productions of Shakespeare and other playwrights who celebrate the spoken word. In addition to performances, the Festival offers education and community engagement programs and comprehensive theater training.