The Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival is proud to present an abridged version of Shakespeare’s comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor as its 2014 Young Company traveling outdoor production. Gifted students from the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, Northwestern, and other universities from around the country make up the cast and crew.
Award-winning director West Hyler has updated The Merry Wives of Windsor, moving the setting from Elizabethan England to the modern-day Midwest. In West’s adaptation, Falstaff, Shakespeare’s funniest character, is uprooted from Chicago and arrives in a small Midwestern town where he attempts to woo a couple suburban wives in order to gain access to their husbands’ bank accounts. West says, “The world we’re creating is full of larger than life characters, like high-strung pharmacists, Applebee’s waiters full of flair, angsty teenagers in love, and an overweight Chicago mobster who gets duped, dumbfounded, and exposed by quick-thinking, fast-acting suburban soccer moms.” It’s a comedy not to be missed!
The 90-minute performance is free of charge, so bring your picnic blanket, lawn chairs, family, and friends to enjoy a summer evening with the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival!
The Young Company is a direct outgrowth of the Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival’s mission to provide exceptional and unparalleled educational opportunities in a theatrical setting to exceptional students from the University of Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s College, and other universities across the nation.
Each summer, Young Company members enjoy working alongside nationally and internationally renowned professionals. Participating students receive expert training in the practical arts of theatrical production including voice and speech, stage combat, production management and set and costume construction. Young Company members have graduated from the program to enjoy careers in acting, design and production all over the country!
The Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival, Notre Dame’s professional theatre in residence, is one component of Shakespeare at Notre Dame, a program that also includes the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies and Actors From The London Stage, a professional touring residency experience. The mission of Shakespeare at Notre Dame is to establish the University nationally and internationally as a center for the study of Shakespeare in performance.
Call (574) 631-3777 or visit shakespeare.nd.edu to learn more about the Young Company and other exciting community programs brought to you by Shakespeare at Notre Dame.
