Livermore Shakes Announces Summer Season Cast

For Immediate Release
April 12, 2017
Contact: Katie Marcel
925-443-2273
Katie@LivermoreShakes.org

Livermore Shakes announces summer season cast

“We will meet; and there we may rehearse most obscenely and courageously,” bids the beloved buffoon Nick Bottom in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Livermore Shakespeare Festival has cast the 2017 season shows and the actors will soon ‘meet and rehearse’ albeit not so obscenely as Nick Bottom suggests. Bay Area talents David Everett Moore and Mary Ann Rodgers will take on the King and Queen of the Fairies as Oberon and Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Ryan Tasker and Jennifer Le Blanc, critically acclaimed as the sparring lovers Beatrice and Benedick in Livermore Shakes’ 2014 Much Ado About Nothing, return for Edmond Rostand’s heroic romantic comedy, Cyrano de Bergerac.

At the helm of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is veteran film, television, and stage actor and director, Gary Armagnac. Armagnac will direct a cast including Moore and Rodgers along with American Conservatory Theater MFA Candidate Lily Narbonne as Helena who starred as Anne Elliot in last year’s Livermore Shakes production of Persuasion and Deborah Lagin, fresh off San Francisco Shakespeare Festival’s tour of Twelfth Night, as the “little but fierce” Hermia. Russ Marcel, a Livermore local and longtime English and Theatre Arts teacher at Bellarmine College Preparatory, will take on the role of Nick Bottom. Producing Artistic Director Lisa A. Tromovitch will direct her own adaptation of Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac, the classic comic and romantic tale of the title character, a gifted poet, who romances his love by proxy due to fear of rejection because of his unusually large nose. Inhabiting that famous nose will be Ryan Tasker, last seen as Colonel Brandon in the Livermore Shakes 2015 production of Sense & Sensibility. His love interest, Roxane, will be played by Livermore Shakes regular, Jennifer Le Blanc. Le Blanc returns to the Bay Area after appearing in Lauren Gunderson’s world premier of The Book of Will at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. Tasker, Le Blanc and David Everett Moore are all members of Actors’ Equity Association, the union representing professional actors and stage managers. “Arts jobs are jobs and we are proud to be creating jobs, employing artists and contributing to the Bay Area’s artistic ecosystem,” states Tromovitch.

Livermore Shakespeare Festival will produce Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Gary Armagnac from June 29th to July 16th, 2017 and Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac adapted and directed by Lisa A. Tromovitch from July 13th to July 30th at Wente Vineyards Estate Winery and Tasting Room on Tesla Road in Livermore. For more information visit LivermoreShakes.org or call (925) 443-BARD.

2017 Livermore Shakespeare Festival FACT SHEET
Production: A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand, adapted by Lisa A. Tromovitch

Producer: Livermore Shakespeare Festival

Directed by: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Gary Armagnac
Cyrano de Bergerac, Lisa A. Tromovitch

Performances: June 29th – July 30th, 2017
Preview of A Midsummer Night’s Dream on June 29th. A Midsummer Night’s Dream Opening Night Performance on June 30th. Midsummer performances are June 29, 30, 31, July 1, July 6, 7, 8, 9 15 and 16 with a Family Night performance on Thursday, June 29th. The Benefit Gala, auction and performance of Midsummer will be held on Saturday, July 8th at 5PM with the performance at 8PM.

Preview of Cyrano de Bergerac will be on July 13th with performances of Cyrano de Bergerac on July 13, 14, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29 and 30 with a Family Night performance on Thursday, July 13th.

Time: All performances begin at 7:30PM with the exception of the Benefit Performance of Midsummer on Saturday, July 8th at 8PM.

Location: Wente Vineyards Estate Winery & Tasting Room, 5565 Tesla Road, Livermore, CA 94550

Parking: FREE. Available at Wente Vineyards Estate Winery and Tasting Room

Ticket Prices: $50- $25, Benefit performance with dinner and auction on July 8th $150. Livermore Shakes Family Night (Midsummer) on June 29th and (Cyrano) on July 13th. Family Night Kids Tickets $5. Kids 18 & Under on all other performances are $18.

Running Time: Show running times are approximately 2 ½ hours including one 15 minute intermission.

Tickets: (925) 443-BARD or www.LivermoreShakes.org

Information:(925) 443-BARD

Contact: Katie Marcel, Managing Director, Katie@LivermoreShakes.org