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.
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;
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.Â
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,
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 &
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.
Beth Kander’s play opens in present century Chicago, circa 2015, when the death of an elderly hoarder brings two county employees, Cassie and Hal, to her (rent-free) apartment to help verify her actual identity. As the employees search through documents and belongings to find clues to her identity, the play offers flashbacks to 1955, where we meet two war widows: Esther, the Jewish inhabitant of the once-pristine apartment and Lynley, her Black neighbor from Alabama,
“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;
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?
“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.