Recent Press Releases for Hampshire Shakespeare Company

2016:

Chris Rohmann’s Stagestruck column writes about A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “…performing on a platform stage that’s framed by a pine grove at the edge of rolling meadows and lit, in the early scenes, by the setting sun. Which would seem to make it the perfect setting for Shakespeare’s most sylvan comedy, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

2015:

Chris Rohmann’s Stagestruck column in the Valley Advocate mentions Hampshire Shakespeare Company when discussing “gender equity in area theaters”:

“In Hampshire Shakespeare Company’s 3:3 season, both the mainstage and Young Company versions of Romeo and Juliet are directed by women. The third production, The Merry Wives of Windsor, is Shakespeare’s only play in which women have the title roles and the primary action all to themselves.”

The Valley Advocate on Romeo and Juliet:

“…[P]erformed… on a bare platform under majestic evergreens. Brianna Sloan’s adventurous production strikes a comparable asymmetry: sumptuously but capriciously costumed by Erin Mabee (doublet and hose and high tops), liberally cross-gendered (many women in male roles, but also Glenn Proud as both a skinhead Tybalt and a burlesque, bearded Nurse) and a first half, bathed in sunset, that reaches audaciously for laughs before turning darker. Macmillan Scott Leslie is an effervescent Romeo and Kate Hare a smart, strong-willed Juliet, both of them utterly believable as youngsters swept away by passion…”

2014:

The Valley Advocate on Comedy of Errors:

“You’d think two sets of identical twins running around Ephesus, mixing up everything and everybody, was crazy enough. But in Brianna Sloane’s production of The Comedy of Errors for Hampshire Shakespeare Company, that mixup does an additional 180. All the men’s parts are played by women, and vice versa. In Shakespeare’s chaotic tale, twin boys and their twin servants, separated at birth, are reunited, but not before they’ve baffled, befuddled and exasperated an entire town and each other. Oh, and all 20-some characters are played by just seven actors, swapping roles as fast as the madcap action.”

The Valley Advocate on The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged):

“In this homage à trois, three actors manically summarize, condense, parody and improvise their way through every known work of Shakespeare in under two hours.”

2013:

Daily Hampshire Gazette on Young Company’s Much Ado About Nothing:

“At the Young Company’s first read-through of the play last week at the Renaissance Center there were smiles and laughs as the actors dove into the jaunty script.”

2011:

The Free George on Taming of the Shrew:

“Hampshire Shakespeare Company is a gift to our little valley, offering creatively directed, wondrously acted performances of plays that have informed our culture and even our individual characters in incalculable ways…”

2010:

Chris Rohmann’s StageStruck column in the Valley Advocate mentions Hampshire Shakespeare Company when reviewing the summer season:

“Another astonishingly young man produced an astonishing performance as Hamlet on Hampshire Shakespeare Company’s outdoor stage in Hadley. P.J. Adzima combined a precocious intelligence with an adolescent energy that made the world’s most famous play seem brand new.”

The Valley Advocate on The Tempest:

“This week it’s The Tempest, in a thoughtful and whimsical production that contrasts nicely with the explosive tragedy and fits pleasingly into the company’s outdoor setting, its multilevel stage framed by the Holyoke Range and, last weekend anyway, illuminated by the rising moon.”

2009:

The Valley Advocate on Twelfth Night:

“A delightfully rambunctious production plays through this weekend at Hampshire Shakespeare Company in Hadley… Director Barry Magnani’s background in Commedia dell’ Arte infuses the production with high spirits and low comedy… Even the romantic leads get to join the fun, as Kaileela Hobby’s Olivia descends from haughty disdain to adolescent squeals in her infatuation with Anna Young’s baffled Viola.”

Chris Rohmann’s StageStruck column in the Valley Advocate mentions Young Company’s As You Like It when reviewing the summer season:

“The Forest of Arrrrden Skull and Crossbones is awarded to my own Young Company cast of As You Like It at Hampshire Shakespeare Company, for the aesthetic mutiny they pulled off despite the director’s misgivings. Having just performed in HSC’s mainstage production of the same play, they wanted a different concept for their own version—Shakespeare as a pirate adventure, me hearties.”

2008:
Mass Live on Romeo and Juliet:

“Hampshire Shakespeare Company brings together professional, amateur and student actors… The company strives to portray Shakespeare’s works in ways that make them understandable, thought-proving and entertaining to modern audiences. “