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Chicago Shakespeare Theater hosts

Shakespeare’s Globe Hamlet

Globe-circling 205 nation tour celebrates Shakespeare Quadricentennial

Chicago—July 28, 2014—Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) welcomes today the Shakespeare’s Globe world tour production of Hamlet to the Courtyard Theater stage for a limited engagement. Scheduled to visit 205 countries in a two-year globe-circling tour, the production’s journey began in London on Shakespeare’s 450th birthday this past spring and will conclude back in its home theater to celebrate the 2016 Shakespeare Quadricentennial on April

23—the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. As a part of CST’s World’s Stage Series, Chicago Shakespeare is one of only three U.S. sites hosting the ambitious world tour, presented in CST’s Courtyard Theater July 28, 29 and 30, 2014.

Directed by the Globe’s Artistic Director Dominic Dromgoole and Bill Buckhurst, Hamlet is a fresh version of the celebrated classic, embracing all the exuberance and invention of Shakespeare’s language in a brisk two hours and forty minutes. Encompassing political intrigue and sexual obsession, philosophical reflection and violent action, tragic depth and wild humor, the production features a company of twelve actors playing multiple roles, with two actors alternating performances in the title role.

The production is travelling the globe by boat, train, car, bus and airplane across seven continents over two years, performing in a wide range of unique and atmospheric venues. Chicago Shakespeare Theater joins the United Nations Headquarters in New York and Washington, D.C’s Folger Shakespeare Library as the only United States performance sites. Throughout Summer 2014, Hamlet will also tour Canada, Central America and the Caribbean, to 26 venues including the Mayan ruins of Copán in Honduras, the majestic Teatro Nacional de El Salvador and Mexico’s Yucatán Cathedral, built a year before Hamlet was written.

The role of Hamlet will be shared by Ladi Emeruwa and Naeem Hayat throughout the tour. All other characters will be played in rotation by Keith Bartlett, John Dougall, Miranda Foster, Phoebe Fildes, Beruce Khan, Tom Lawrence, Jennifer Leong, Rawiri Paratene, Matthew Romain, and Amanda Wilkin. The creative team includes Tony Award® nominated Designer Jonathan Fensom, Musical Director and Composer Bill Barclay, Composer Laura Forrest Hay, Choreographer Siân Williams and Fight Director Kevin McCurdy.

Chicago Shakespeare first welcomed Shakespeare’s Globe to the Courtyard Theater in 2003 with its “original practices” production of Twelfth Night starring Mark Rylance as Olivia. CST debuted on the Globe Theatre’s stage with its production of Othello: The Remix, created with the Q Brothers, as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad. The continuing cultural exchange is a highlight of the Theater’s mission to bring the world’s great theater artists to Chicago and Chicago Shakespeare to the world.

ABOUT CHICAGO SHAKESPEARE THEATER

Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) is a leading international theater company and the recipient of the Regional Theatre Tony Award. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Barbara Gaines and Executive Director Criss Henderson, CST is dedicated to producing extraordinary production of classics, new works and family fare; to unlocking Shakespeare’s work for educators and students; and to serving as Chicago’s cultural ambassador through its World’s Stage Series. Through a year-round season encompassing more than 600 performances, CST attracts 200,000 audience members annually. One in four of its audience members is under eighteen years old, and today its education programs have impacted the learning of over one million students. CST is proud to take an active role in empowering the next generation of literate, engaged cultural champions and creative minds. Visit www.chicagoshakes.com.

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Hannah Kennedy
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hkennedy@chicagoshakes.com

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Cathy Taylor Public Relations
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Chicago Shakespeare Theater
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Chicago, IL 60611

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