Much Ado About Nothing
By William Shakespeare
and
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)
By Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield
Napa, CA: Shakespeare Napa Valley, in association with Napa Valley College and the Napa Valley Tourism Improvement District, brings summer hilarity to Napa County.
Kicking off the summer is Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, directed by Shakespeare Napa Valley Artistic Director Jennifer King. The production stars award-winning actor Tim Kniffin as the swaggering Benedick and acclaimed Bay Area actress Danielle Cain as his foil, Beatrice. Set in post-war Italy, this Much Ado is a celebration of love and healing. Kniffin recently won the SF Bay Area Critics Circle Best Actor award for his portrayal of Al Manners in Aurora Theatre Company’s smash hit, Trouble in Mind. Cain, herself and SFBACC Best Actress nominee, has established herself as the go-to North Bay theater artist and scholar for all things Shakespeare. Audiences will remember her delightful (and devilish) turn as Katherine in last summer’s SNV production of The Taming of the Shrew.
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) is the smash-hit brainchild of Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, founding members of the Reduced Shakespeare Company. In this updated version, new material has been supplied by Reed Martin, a managing partner of The Reduced Shakespeare Company. Audience favorites Dodds Delzell, Chad Yarish and Dan Saski move at lightning speed to cover every one of Shakespeare’s 37 plays in a witty new production directed by veteran stage director Sharon Winegar, whose credits include work with the Colorado and Lake Tahoe Shakespeare Festivals. It is a tour-de-force that will leave audiences aching with laughter. First performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1987 and later at the Criterion Theatre in London, Complete Works ran for nine record-breaking years and still holds the (self-proclaimed) world record for the shortest-ever performance of Hamlet, clocking in at 43 seconds. Delzell, Yarish and Saski have a grand old time skewering the Bard’s work, but they come by the privilege honestly: all three are well versed in the performance of Shakespeare’s work. Delzell has performed in, among others, King Lear, Twelfth Night and last summer’s NVC production of The Taming of the Shrew where he thrilled audiences as the testosterone-packed Petruchio. Dan Saski’s Shakespearean aplomb was evident in turns as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet, Horatio in Hamlet and Lucentio in The Taming of the Shrew. Yarish, too, is no newcomer to Shakespeare’s work, having appeared in Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and As You Like It, to name only a few. In spite of all this high art, this time around the actors are just having fun, blasting through all 37 plays and leaving us wondering, “How on earth did they do that?”
Both shows are produced under the leadership of Shakespeare Napa Valley Artistic Director Jennifer King. King is in her third year as a full-time tenured theater professor and artistic director of Napa Valley Conservatory Theater at Napa Valley College, after serving as executive/artistic director of Sonoma County Repertory Theater from 2003 through August 2008, where she also produced the Sebastopol Shakespeare Festival. Over the past two decades, she has held leadership positions with the Dallas Theater Center, the California Shakespeare Theater and Main Street Theater.
The Facts:
Much Ado About Nothing
Director: Jennifer King
Featuring: Tim Kniffin* and Danielle Cain
Run Dates: July 22, 23, 24, 29, 30 and 31 at 7pm (Fri - Sun July 22 - 31)
*member, Actors Equity Association
The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)
Director: Sharon Winegar
Featuring: Dodds Delzell,* Dan Saski and Chad Yarish
Run Dates: July 26, 27 and 28 at 7pm
*member, Actors Equity Association
Venue: Veterans Park, Napa, is located at 800 Main Street, Napa, CA 94559
Ticket Prices: FREE! (No advance tickets)
For More Information:
By Phone: 707-256-7500
Online: www.shakespearenapavalley.org