More Information About Summer Shakespeare Festival at the Mysterium

Website

http://mysteriumshop.com/

Description

Taming of the Shrew 
June 9-24
Directed by Gary Krinke
What do you do when your youngest daughter wants to marry before the elder? And what do you do when the elder is a shrew ? Find out what Baptista does in this battle of the sexes commedia comedy,  presented in the commedia style on a playground. 

The Merchant  of Venice (Beach)
June 30-July 15
Directed by Jeff Lowe
Set in Venice Beach with all the humor, pathos justice and mercy you would expect in this Shakespearean classic with a contemporary edge.

Othello
July 19-Aug. 5
Director Marla Ladd
This production, directed by Marla Ladd, will be done with the Steampunk Influence. Steampunk is a genre which originated during the 1980s and early 1990s and incorporates elements of science fiction, fantasy, alternate history, horror, and speculative fiction. It involves a setting where steam power is widely used-whether in an alternate history such as Victorian era Britain or "Wild West"-era United States, or in a post-apocalyptic time -that incorporates elements of either science fiction or fantasy. Works of steampunk often feature anachronistic technology, or futuristic innovations as Victorians might have envisioned them, based on a Victorian perspective on fashion, culture, architectural style, and art. This technology includes such fictional machines as those found in the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne.

Much Ado About Nothing
Aug. 11-26
This production of Much Ado About Nothing takes a detour to Cuba, the Holiday Isle of the Tropics. Rather than Messina, we discover our story amidst the slums, sugarcane, and slot machines of 1950s Havana—or at least some Hollywood approximation of that time and place.

At the height of our spending during the decade, Americans dropped nearly $50 million a year in Cuba, and invested many more millions in rebuilding the land we previously occupied. Pleasure-seeking Americans traveled blithely to casinos, nightclubs, and hotels—most of which were intimately connected with the Havana Mob, and the mob was in bed with Batista’s dictatorship. Our beloved film, radio, and television stars performed side-by-side with Cuban entertainers, while crime syndicates from around the world swiftly swept into the Caribbean island. There, graft and politics went hand-in-hand. Havana became the “Latin Las Vegas,” an international drug port that made both gangsters and government officials rich, while regular citizens languished in poverty, rebels paid for their offences with their lives, and Americans partied hard.

Though often giddy, the world of the play is, like 1950s Havana, a place of contradictions: both beautiful and dangerous. Make no mistake; this is a love story (it’s even a double love story), but it is one fraught with danger and anxiety. The threat comes not only from the doubt bred by villains like Don John, but also from within. The fear of what others may do, or what we ourselves may do, despite all outward protests, is here prominently explored. Although the trappings of casino, mambo, and tobacco may be new additions to this traditional tale, the story remains the same.