Houston Shakespeare Festival
Now celebrating its thirty-fourth season, The Houston Shakespeare Festival has grown into one of the major events on Houston's summer entertainment calendar. Festival audiences are as diverse as Houston itself, with many people experiencing live theatre for the first time.
In 1975 Sidney Berger, then Director of the School of Theatre & Dance at the University of Houston, met with university administrators and the Miller Theatre Advisory Council to enlist support for a two-production season of Shakespeare's works to be played in repertory on Miller Theatre's stage. The trial season was greeted with overwhelming enthusiasm. Audience size exceeded expectations, and letters of appreciation from private citizens and city officials poured in.
Now a Houston tradition, the annual Shakespeare Festival draws thousands of people who enjoy free live theatre from one of the greatest playwrights of all time.
Julius Caesar
A profound work about misguided ambitions that seems torn out of today's headlines. Shakespeare's depiction of the vast gulf that lies between private life and personal ambition is at the center of this remarkable play.
August 1, 3, 5, 7, 9
Cymbeline
A great fairy tale for adults where themes of jealousy, fidelity, simplicity, and sophistication are all played out with Shakespeare's customary genius. As noted director Patrick Tucker stated, "It is a play for our time."
August 2, 6, 8, 10
Admission is free, but tickets are required for covered seating and are available at the Miller Outdoor Theatre box office between 11:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. and one hour prior to each performance. For more information, call the Miller Outdoor Theatre box office at 281-FREE-FUN or visit www.MillerOutdoorTheatre.com.
