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WASHINGTON, DC SPOTLIGHTS SHAKESPEARE WITH 2007 PROMOTION
All the city’s a stage in 2007 as Washington, DC launches as six-month tribute to William Shakespeare. From January
through June, more than 40 arts organizations will come together for Shakespeare in Washington,
a landmark festival of theatre, music, dance, films, art exhibits at venues throughout the DC area. Spearheaded by Kennedy
Center president Michael Kaiser and Shakespeare Theatre Company artistic director Michael Kahn, the festival coincides with
the 75th anniversary of the Folger Shakespeare Library, the largest collection of Shakespeare memorabilia
outside of Stratford-upon-Avon.
The featured events are designed to showcase the Bard’s influence on stage, film,
art and music. Highlights of the promotion include:
• National Gallery of Art’s special
exhibition, The Artist's Vision: Romantic Traditions in Britain, which features as its centerpiece Dante Gabriel
Rossetti's chalk drawing, Desdemona's Death Song (Nov. 19 – Mar. 18).
• The Folger Shakespeare
Library’s unique treatment of King Lear, co-produced by the Classical Theatre of Harlem (Jan. 18 –
Feb. 25).
• The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s Titus Andronicus, an early, rarely-produced
Shakespearean masterpiece that re-invents the revenge tragedies of his era (Jan. 18 – Mar. 18).
• The Kennedy
Center’s ballet highlights, which include Kirov Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet (Jan. 16-21) and New
York City Ballet’s A Midsummer Night's Dream (Feb. 28 – Mar. 4.
• The Washington
Performing Arts Society’s Virtually Richard, an audaciously original version of Shakespeare’s
Richard III blending theater and dance. (Mar. 23-24).
• The Royal Shakespeare Company’s
I, featuring William Houston and Academy Award® nominee Janet Suzman, performed at the Kennedy Center (April 14 – May
6).
• The Washington Ballet’s 7x7: Shakespeare, a set of seven world premieres
exploring elements of Shakespeare's diverse compositions (May 14-21).
• The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks
Orchestra’s interdisciplinary performance of Such Sweet Thunder, also known as The Shakespearean
Suite, featuring Billy Strayhorn and Duke Ellington's Shakespeare-inspired compositions interspersed with soliloquies,
scenes and speeches. Part of the Kennedy Center Jazz series (May 20).
• Synetic Theater’s
award–winning wordless adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy, Hamlet…The Rest Is Silence.
Directed and choreographed by Paata and Irina Tsikurishvili, respectively, Hamlet has been streamlined to 90 minutes,
with no intermission (June).
Hotels and restaurants will also join in the celebration, with themed packages and special
menu items and cocktails available throughout the six-month festival. Packages will be available exclusively online at washington.org or by calling 1-800-422-8644.
For a full listing of programming, visit www.kennedy-center.org/shakespeare.
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About the Washington, DC Convention & Tourism Corporation: The Washington,
DC Convention & Tourism Corporation, the lead destination marketing organization for the nation’s capital, is a
private, non-profit membership organization of nearly 1,000 businesses committed to marketing the area as a premier global
convention, tourism and special events destination with a special emphasis on the arts, cultural and historic communities.
www.washington.org.
August 31, 2006 / Contact: Rebecca Pawlowski
/ Director of Communications / Washington, DC Convention & Tourism Corporation / 202-789-7099
/ Rebecca@washington.org
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