Elm Shakespeare Company Brings Blockbuster Hit to Edgerton Park

Paul Pryce, Pericles

Prema Cruz, Marina

The Elm Shakespeare Company is bringing William Shakespeare's most popular play to Edgerton Park in New Haven this week.  Wrapping up an amazing summer outdoor theater season in Connecticut Elm Shakespeare will present 'this blockbuster hit during Shakespeare's lifetime' - Pericles. The 19th season of FREE Shakespeare in the Park will open on Thursday, August 14 at 8pm.  Performances will continue nightly (no performances on Mondays and Tuesdays) through August 31.

Set against the tumultuous unrest of the Colonial West Indies and infused with the dark magic of Vodoun and Kanaval, Artistic Director James Andreassi transports this tale of Pericles to a Caribbean setting, rife with evil leaders and pirates, fisherman and foul weather, where a man finds and loses love, and then finds it again; battling the forces Fate, Fortune and Nature.

Over 30,000 from New Haven county and beyond will attend this professional, Equity production.  The Elm Shakespeare Company is the largest outdoor theatre dedicated to the work of William Shakespeare in performance and education in Connecticut.  Major support of the Elm Shakespeare Company's 19th season provided by Whitney Center and Webster Bank.

The professional cast includes Paul Pryce, a Trinidad native who was memorable as Mark Antony in ESC's last summer's production of Julius Caesar, playing the role of Pericles; Associate Artistic Director Raphael Massie as Simonides; Yale School of Drama graduate students Prema Cruz as Marina and Sean Patrick Higgins as Lysimachus; and New Haven actress Gracie Brown-Keirstead as Gower.

Award-winning designers for this production include set designer Vladimir Shpitalnik; sound designer Nathan Robers, costume designer Elizabeth Bolster, and lighting designer Jamie Burnett.  Twelbe outstanding high school students from the New Haven region have joined the Company both on stage and behind the scenes as Elm Scholar Apprentices - the Elm Shakespeare Company's premier pre-professional training program.

Press release from Elm Shakespeare Company