Locals enjoy deal at Shakespeare festival opening

Shakespeare springs back to life tonight at the Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festival at Sand Harbor State Park. If you're a local there's a special deal for you for tonight and Friday - just show your local ID and enjoy discount pricing starting a $14 for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" or "Richard III."

All that with a splendid view of Lake Tahoe in the background, food and drink and a new staff to help push things along.

With the 36th season of the festival, audiences will see the evolution of a year-long planning process that includes a new in-house directorial and artistic team, a new stage, two classic Shakespeare performances, an original musical production and live music to accompany it all.

Running through Aug. 17, the 2008 season is the festival's most ambitious and brings together the wildly dissimilar Shakespeare plays with "CAMBIO," an original musical love story based on Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Bit of a spread, huh?

A taste of Shakespeare's Kitchen with gourmet food and drink adds to the festival experience.

"To say we're excited about our 2008 season is an understatement," said Catherine Atack, executive director for the festival. "The combination of gleefully wicked royalty, impishly interfering immortals and passionate Cuban lovers sets the stage for a diverse and inspiring summer theater experience. Audiences are also in for a season of firsts as the festival debuts multiple venue enhancements and live music scoring each performance. These additions are made possible by the creation of our new in-house production team led by festival artistic director Jan Powell. In just one season, our festival experience has transformed into a true world-class theatrical venue."

"Richard III" combines action, sensuality, historic events, larger-than-life characters and humor - making it one of Shakespeare's most revered works. The play follows the conniving and hunchbacked Richard III as he slaughters his way through family members and friends, allowing nothing to stand in the way of his bloody path to the throne.

Set in the late 15th century and with the fate of England's crown in jeopardy, "Richard III" is a domestic squabble with wrangling, mercurial twists of fate, astonishing seductions and splendidly selfish maneuverings. Directed by Powell, "Richard III" entertains audiences with dazzling swordplay and a glimpse into two tumultuous years in England's history.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a complex and thought-provoking comedy as well as one of the Bard's most original plays. Guest director Michael Walling, who is the artistic director for London's Border Crossings Theatre, provides his take on the performance by incorporating the natural beauty of Lake Tahoe into the production, drawing inspiration from the area's rich Native American heritage in contrast to its contemporary inhabitants. Beginning with the celebration of the impending marriage of Duke Theseus and Hippolyta, the farce-like festivities are interrupted by a dispute over Hermia's arranged marriage.

The story takes a turn as Hermia flees her marital fate and retreats into the woods with her true love to secretly marry, pursued by her betrothed and the girl that pines for him. The lovers' shifting affections, spurred on by a love-potion administered as a fairy prank, create havoc in the forest until Puck creates a heavy fog to lead the characters back to sleep and applies the antidote. Upon waking, all the young people find they are in love with the right person and the fairy king and his foe reconcile, just in time to head off to a gala triple wedding and hilarious performance acted by the mechanicals.

"CAMBIO" is an original musical love story created exclusively for the Festival and inspired by Victor Hugo's "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." Set in modern-day Havana, "CAMBIO" is a passionate and powerful love story about a poor young man who is a social outcast and the rebellious and disdainfully beautiful woman he loves from afar. Social caste, the poverty of Cuba and the constraints of an inflexible regime make his situation seem hopeless. But the two are more alike than he can imagine. Driven by an original score of rock and salsa-inspired music and written and directed by Powell, "CAMBIO" combines brilliantly colorful costuming and exhilarating dance with deep emotion and a touch of comedy into this thought-provoking context.