Articles Tagged With: CSC

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews October 10, 2026 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

This story begins with a spark. A spark of light. A spark of life. A spark of humanity. Truly, an electrifying retelling of the iconic monster novel, now such a smashing success on stage that it’s already received it’s first extension before officially being open. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company jolts their 2026/2027 to thrillifying life with Mary Shelley’s Frankestein, by David Catlin, directed by Ian Gallanar and Lizzi Albert. This devilishly delicious sweet treat is the perfect pop of terrifying thriller to start spooky season on the right foot.

It’s Alive: An Electrifying Interview with Vince Eisenson on Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s Frankenstein

Interviews September 26, 2026 Amanda N. Gunther Leave a comment

“Beware, for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”

A quote that could readily send chills up the spine if taken out of context, or perhaps, even presented with context. A beautiful sentence, complex and nuanced, and yet eight simple words. From a creation to its creator, but there is beauty in power, strength too, and fearlessness is what it takes to continue to produce evocative art, challenging the norms, and pushing the envelope when it comes to that mythical,

The cast of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's The Tale of Cymbeline 📷 Kiirstn Pagan Photography

The Tale of Cymbeline at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews June 29, 2026 Erin Tarpley

author: Erin Tarpley

“Love’s a reason without reason”

What is the first trope you think of when you think of Shakespeare? Star-crossed lovers? Mistaken identities? Cross-dressing? Tragic flaws? Dramatic irony? Do you tend to prefer his tragedies? Comedies? Romances?? Well, when it comes to The Tale of Cymbeline, this show feels like it is competing for a “Shakespeare-Trope” bingo game; and all the audience is a winner with this production!

Shakill Jamal (top) as Trinculo, with Vince Eisenson (center) as Caliban, and Matt Harris (below) as Stephano in Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's The Tempest 📷 Kiirstn Pagan Photography.

The Tempest at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews April 30, 2026 Amanda N. Gunther

Just sit right back and you’ll hear a tale, a tale of a Duke o’er-thrown

That ended him and his daughter dear, on an island all alone.

Though not so alone as they thought they were— among spirits of earth and air

And then a conjured-magic sea-spun storm that brought their en’mies there.

The plot then thickens there, my friend, and there’s so much more to say

About the entities and denizens that populate this play

Magic.

We Are Such Stuff As Dreams Are Made On: An Interview with Christopher Marino on Playing Prospero at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Interviews April 10, 2026 Amanda N. Gunther

O’ wonder! How many goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! And it takes just one goodly creature, in this case, an actor, to sit down with us and chat all about Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s upcoming production of The Tempest. In a TheatreBloom sit-down exclusive, we’re talking to Christopher Marino, currently playing Prospero in The Tempest, which opens on April 24th as the final show (on the indoor mainstage) of the 2025/2026 season.

Dejeanette Horne (left) as Troy and Isaiah C. Evans (right) as Cory in Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s Fences 📷 Kiirstn Pagan Photography

Fences at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews February 7, 2026 Amanda N. Gunther

Some people build fences to keep people out. Other people build fences to keep people in. A powerful statement to be sure; an evocative thought that primes the mind for the emotional journey that is August Wilson’s Fences. Produced at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company as a part of the multi-year, city-wide Baltimore August Wilson Celebration, this striking production is a theatrical pleasure, inviting audiences into the intimate details of day-to-day life in the backyard of the Maxson home in Pittsburgh,

Shakespeare In Harlem at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company 📷 Kiirstn Pagan Photography

Shakespeare In Harlem at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company & UMBC Theatre

Reviews January 17, 2026 Amanda N. Gunther

There is a big blue emptiness in a dream deferred. And Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is filling it up with a first of its kind collaborative production between themselves and UMBC Theatre. Langston Hughe’s Shakespeare In Harlem, adapted for the stage and directed by Gerrad Alex Taylor, is appearing for a one-weekend only performance at CSC’s downtown stage after a successful run at UMBC Theatre in the fall of 2025. Evocative poetry in theatrical motion,

Gregory Burgess (center) as Scrooge and the cast of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s A Christmas Carol 📷Kiirstn Pagan Photography.

A Christmas Carol at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews November 30, 2025 Amanda N. Gunther

Tis the season of hospitality, merriment, and openheartedness! Come in and know them better, man! Tis the season— their 11th, in fact— for putting that timeless holiday classic, A Christmas Carol, upon their stage. Tis the season for uplifting spirits, for heartwarming festivities, and for radical, positive change. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s A Christmas Carol is truly a cherished stage tradition, nestled right in the heart of Charm City and is bringing jubilation amid the bleakness that 2025 has turned out to be;

Greg Burgess as Ebenezer Scrooge in the 2022 production of A Christmas Carol at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Bah! Humbug! Christmas Chatter with Greg Burgess on 11 years of playing Ebenezer Scrooge with Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Interviews November 22, 2025 Amanda N. Gunther

Bah! Humbug! The Christmas season is upon us. Again. Already. (Baltimore’s local 101.9 even had flipped the switch to their Christmas music on Thursday 11/20/25 as I was driving home to ring up Greg Burgess and interview him!) The holidays are upon us whether you’re ready or not. And in a world of so much darkness and chaos, aren’t the holidays meant to be what spreads a little love, a little light, a little joy?

Julius Caesar at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews June 26, 2025 Erin Tarpley

author: Erin Tarpley

“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once.”

As the sun begins to set behind the many hills of Historic Ellicott City, the air begins to cool. But tonight (or today, if you go on a Sunday), you are not in Historic Ellicott City. No, my friend. You have travelled back in time and space 2,000 years to the historic seven hills of Ancient Rome.

Lise Bruneau (left) as Mary Stuart with Lesley Malin (right) as Elizabeth Queen of England in Chesapeake Shakespeare Company's Mary Stuart 📷Kiirstn Pagan Photography

Mary Stuart at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews April 30, 2025 Amanda N. Gunther

Diplomacy is nothing but a cockfight. Sounds a bit too modern for something that happened almost 440 years ago. And yet the striking political relevance inside Friederich Schiller’s Mary Stuart (new version adapted by Peter Oswald and currently directed by Ian Gallanar) is both eerie and chilling to the world we’re presently living in. This evocative drama, despite its hefty run-time, is impressive and exceedingly well-polished upon the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s main stage for their final indoor show of the 2024/2025 season.

Holly Gibbs (left) as Luce with Brendan Murray (center) as Mayor William Donald Schaefer and Kathryne Daniels (right) as Adriana in CSC’s It’s The Comedy of Errors, Hon! 📷 Kiirstn Pagan Photography.

It’s The Comedy of Errors, Hon! at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews February 19, 2025 Amanda N. Gunther

Didja know that one of them actresses in that It’s The Comedy of Errors, Hon! has a baby who shares the exact same birthday as mah nephew? They’re both now eight months old, hon! That’s Smalltimore for ya! And while I didn’t invent that phrase, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is reinventing the wheel with it’s fabulously uplifting, nonsensical production of It’s The Comedy of Errors, Hon! Directed by company founder Ian Gallanar,

Zipporah Brown Gladden (left) as Mattie Campbell and Miley Folley (right) as Jeremy Furlow in Joe Turner's Come and Gone at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company ???? Kiirstn Pagan Photography

Joe Turner’s Come and Gone at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews September 23, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

If you forget your song or how to sing it, you forget who you are. There’s something powerful in that paraphrased saying from August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone, which is appearing live on the main stage at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, as a part of the Baltimore City-wide “Baltimore August Wilson Celebration.” As the second production in this city-wide festival, committed to producing ten of August Wilson’s works in chronological order (of when they take place,

The cast of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s Romeo and Juliet ???? Kiirstn Pagan Photography

Romeo & Juliet at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews April 20, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

If love be rough— be rough with love! Or get on down to Club Escalus for Mercutio’s Funky Boogie Woogie! Or both! All of the above. Groove to rhythm of ’75, baby— and nah, we don’t mean no 1575. We’re talkin’ 1975, ya dig? And we’re talkin’ Baltimore Baby! Closing out their 2023/2024 season on their Main Stage (and please join them for their fabulous summer fling out at the PFI in Ellicott City when R&J closes) Chesapeake Shakespeare Company is bringing you the grooviest production of Romeo &

The cast of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s The Oresteia. ???? Kiirstn Pagan Photography.

The Oresteia at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews February 17, 2024 Amanda N. Gunther

Do I remember this? Or is this what’s about to happen? This is no dream. This is no vision. This is the truth. Profound words. Or are they questions? What are words if not questions? You’ll hear them over and over— though never truly in one voice as one might expect from a chorus in a Greek tragedy; their effect, however, is no less striking. Chesapeake Shakespeare Company presents The Oresteia freely adapted from Aeschylus by Ellen McLaughlin and directed by Lise Bruneau.

Chesapeake Shakespeare Company presents As You Like It ???? Kiirstn Pagan

As You Like It at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews October 4, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

It was a bright and cold day in September and the clocks were striking 13. No, that’s not quite right.

We that are true lovers run into strange capers. That’s more like it. Or rather, Shakespeare’s As You Like It, as directed by Ian Gallanar now appearing on the stages of Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s boards for their fall-opening of the 2023/2024 season. Though one could readily meet the confusion of “Am I watching George Orwell’s 1984 (or even L.

Mecca Verdell, Keri Anderson, and Jordan Stanford as the Three Weird Sister in Macbeth ???? Kiirstn Pagan Photography

Macbeth at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews June 22, 2023 Erin Tarpley

“By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes”

“Now is the Winter of our discontent”…. No wait, nevermind. That’s a different Shakespeare show, and a different season entirely. But Summer is here in Maryland and when it comes to the Macbeths, “discontent” is an apropos word to define their predicament, but the exact opposite to describe how you will feel as you enjoy this timeless production of the Scottish Play;

Vince Eisenson (left) as Hamlet and JC Payne (Laertes) ????Kiirstn Pagan

Hamlet at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews May 4, 2023 Amanda N. Gunther

When the play opens with the infamous “To be or not to be…” you start to think time is out of joint. Or maybe that you’ve just misremembered how Hamlet starts? You ever look at one of those maps of the United States where all the states have been shoved around into different spaces in the outline but it still mostly looks like the outline of the country even though everything is all discombobulated?

Scott Alan Small, Kathryne Daniels and Shaquille Stewart in The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged).???? Kiirstn Pagan Photography

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] [AGAIN] at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews February 13, 2023 Leonard Taube

What do you get when you mix three actors clad in colored and patterned tights, a giant prop box filled with an assortment of goodies, and a script full of comic gold? Hilarity, that’s what. Baltimore’s Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s (CSC) production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) [Revised] [Again] opened to a boisterous house, complete with a swanky after-party in their upstairs lounge.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) was conceived and written by Adam Long,

Much Ado About Nothing at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews June 22, 2022 Erin Tarpley

“Friendship is constant in all other things, Save in the office and affairs of love.”

Love is in the air; but some may need a little meddling, I mean “help,” from their friends to realize it. As for the audience, it is easy to feel the love in Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s Much Ado About Nothing. Playing under the open sky and in the ruins at the PFI Historic Park in Ellicott City now through July 24th,

Samuel Adams and the cast of Henry V. ????Kiirstn Pagan

Henry V at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews April 28, 2022 Amanda N. Gunther

“Oh for a muse of fire that would reach the uppermost heights of creativity— the stage a kingdom…” we’ve all heard it. We all recognize it. Do we all know that it comes from one of Shakespeare’s histories? You may have heard it, recognize it, and even know that it comes from Henry V, but you’ve never heard it until you hear it slipping delicately over the lips of Lesley Malin, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company’s Executive Producing Director— or for the purposes of this performance— The Chorus.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged at Chesapeake Shakespeare Company

Reviews March 7, 2020 Amanda N. Gunther

To laugh? Or not to laugh? That won’t really be much of a
question as Chesapeake Shakespeare Company attempts all 37 of Shakespeare’s
plays with three guys, one stage, and 2 hours traffic upon it. Yes, the Bard’s
almighty collection— as condensed, despoiled, and distilled by Adam Long,
Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield— also entitled The Complete Works of William
Shakespeare Abridged— now finds its way onto the Globe-esque stage of Chesapeake
Shakespeare Company under the direction of Artistic Director Ian Gallanar.