Shakespeare Festival St. Louis Education Tour 2010 presents
All the World’s a Stage... and Trippingly Hamlet
Saturday, March 13, 2010, starting at 7:00 p.m.
The Emerson Performance Center at Harris Stowe State University
3026 Laclede Avenue, St, Louis, MO
Tickets: Admission is FREE and open to the public; call 314-531-9800 for details

All the World's a Stage...
Adapted from the works of Shakespeare by Christopher Limber
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players..." 
As You Like It, Act II Scene vii
Thrill to scenes from Shakespeare’s most beloved plays including Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Macbeth, Hamlet and The Taming of the Shrew, introduced by William Shakespeare and his company of talented & versatile Spirits of the Theatre. Fascinating theatrical anecdotes and Shakespearean lore weave together this entertaining, educational portrait of the Bard’s stunning career as a playwright, actor and entrepreneur who would transform the theatre forever.

Trippingly Hamlet
Adapted from Shakespeare's Hamlet by Michael B. Perkins, Robin Weatherall & Christopher Limber
“Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue...”
Hamlet, Act III, Scene ii 
This artful adaptation of the Bard’s masterpiece pares the 4,024 lines of his longest, most quotable play into a gripping 50 minutes, recounting the story of Hamlet’s internal struggle to avenge his father’s death. Shakespeare’s tense and compelling tragedy explores the very nature of our existence, the complexities of reconciling justice with the violence of revenge, of family relationships and madness. Hamlet’s ultimate challenge is to act morally within a corrupt world, which renders him Shakespeare’s greatest achievement in holding a bright and multifaceted mirror up to human nature.

SIUE’s A Season for the Child presents Shakespeare Festival St. Louis Education Tour 2010
All the World’s a Stage...
Saturday, March 20, 2010, 7:00 p.m.
Katherine Dunham Hall Theater at SIUE
Tickets: $5
Call (618) 650-2774 or visit http://www.siue.edu/~gconroy/FOTAD/index.html

All the World's a Stage...
Adapted from the works of Shakespeare by Christopher Limber
"All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players..." 
As You Like It, Act II Scene vii
Thrill to scenes from Shakespeare’s most beloved plays including Romeo and Juliet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Tempest, Macbeth, Hamlet and The Taming of the Shrew, introduced by William Shakespeare and his company of talented & versatile Spirits of the Theatre. Fascinating theatrical anecdotes and Shakespearean lore weave together this entertaining, educational portrait of the Bard’s stunning career as a playwright, actor and entrepreneur who would transform the theatre forever.

Fontbonne University Theatre Department presents
Fortinbras by Lee Blessing, directed by Deanna Jent
March 25-28, 2010. 8 pm Th-Sa, 2 pm Sunday
Fontbonne Theatre, 6800 Wydown Blvd, St. Louis MO 63105
Tickets: $5-$10

Starting with the final lines of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, this comic play imagines Fortinbras taking over the castle and interacting with a host of ghosts who have unfinished business.  Call 314-889-1425 for reservations and information.

Shakespeare Festival St. Louis presents
Metro Youth Shakespeare: Hamlet 
Friday, March 26, 2010 at 7 p.m. and Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 2 p.m. & 7 p.m.
The Emerson Performance Center at Harris Stowe State University
3026 Laclede Avenue, St, Louis, MO
Tickets: Admission is FREE and open to the public; call 314-531-9800 for details

Metro Youth Shakespeare, in its eighth year, is a core education Performance Program of Shakespeare Festival St. Louis for young actors ages 12-18.  This year’s collaborative production of Hamlet includes one middle school, eight high schools and one college.  Each school rehearses a portion of the play in-school for ten weeks, and then spends an intensive week as an ensemble, staging the entire play for three performances.  For some students this production is their introduction to performing Shakespeare; for others, it marks the culmination of four years of study with their Drama instructors and the support of Festival Teaching Artists.  Together, these dedicated students will offer a production of Hamlet unlike any you have experienced!

New Jewish Theatre presents
Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, adapted by Robin Weatherall
April 14–May 2, 2010
Missouri History Museum, E. Desmond Lee Theatre
Tickets: $22 - $34

Shakespeare’s classic tale of star-crossed lovers assumes a different tone with the story set in the British Mandate of Palestine in 1947 during the war for Israeli Independence.  Rather than feuding families in Verona, we find warring Arabs and Jews in Jerusalem with the British as mediator.  With the love story intact, the play in this setting becomes a history lesson.  As part of the Missouri History Museum’s Performing Arts Series, this production’s historical aspect is even more heightened.  As the two young lovers try to cross the political divide, the tragedy of their ill-fated love results in a hopeful lesson for tolerance, understanding and peace. A world premiere adaptation. Tickets available from Missouri History Museum or from the NJT website, www.newjewishtheatre.org

From parental discord and loss, to the loyalties of friends old and new, to the fragility of young love, to the power of the supernatural, Shakespeare explores the themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption as Hamlet journeys to accept responsibility as a man. For more information, call 531-9800 or visit www.shakespearefestivalstlouis.org