Dozens of Festival Plays Worth Traveling to This Summer

New York Times

3 days ago

In and Around New York
Just off Manhattan, a full-to-bursting open-air season is already underway at Little Island (through Sept. 28), a park in the Hudson River that looks from afar as if it was built atop a giant's stash of stiletto heels. Highlights include Kate Tarker and Dan Schlosberg's 'The Counterfeit Opera: A Beggar's Opera for a Grifter's City' (through June 15); Sarah Gancher's bluegrass re-envisioning of 'Eugene Onegin,' directed by Rachel Chavkin (July 30-31); and 'The Tune Up,' a music-filled evening of new work by Suzan-Lori Parks (July 30-Aug. 3).
And at the newly renovated Delacorte Theater in Central Park, Shakespeare in the Park makes a glittery return with Saheem Ali's production of 'Twelfth Night' (Aug. 7-Sept. 14), starring Lupita Nyong'o as Viola, Sandra Oh as Olivia, Peter Dinklage as Malvolio, Daphne Rubin-Vega as Maria and Jesse Tyler Ferguson as Andrew Aguecheek.
Amid the hive of theater development that is Poughkeepsie in summertime, New York Stage and Film's dozen public performances at Marist College (July 11-Aug. 3) include new works by Donja R. Love, Carly Mensch, Hansol Jung, Kirsten Greenidge and John Patrick Shanley, while a reading of Drew Gasparini and Alex Brightman's musical 'It's Kind of a Funny Story' is part of the Powerhouse Theater season (June 20-July 27) at nearby Vassar College. In Garrison, under the tent at the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, 'The Comedy of Errors' (June 6-Aug. 2) plays in rep with Thornton Wilder's 'The Matchmaker' (June 8-Aug. 3), followed by Dave Malloy's chamber musical 'Octet' (Aug. 11-Sept. 7).
The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, about an hour north of Philadelphia, takes an expansive approach to the Bard. You can see 'Hamlet' (July 9-Aug. 3) and its Tom Stoppard spinoff, 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead' (July 17-Aug. 2). Iambic pentameter not your jam? You can also catch the musical 'The Producers' (June 11-29) or the Lorraine Hansberry play 'A Raisin in the Sun' (June 25-July 13). Now that's range.
Northeast
Western Massachusetts is a travel destination for the Berkshires' hilly beauty and for the summer seasons of its established theaters, including Barrington Stage Company (June 3-Oct. 12), in downtown Pittsfield; Shakespeare & Company (June 19-Oct. 12), in bucolic Lenox; and Berkshire Theater Group (through Oct. 26), in both Pittsfield and Stockbridge.
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