Adirondack Shakespeare Company to Present Third Summer Festival Season in Schroon Lake and Lake Placid

With a two-week tour of their original children's show, The Twelve Labors of Hercules already under their belt, the Adirondack Shakespeare Company is currently preparing for their ambitious third annual Summer Festival Season. This year's mainstage productions include Shakespeare's Twelfth Night andHamlet as well as Tom Stoppard's modern comedy, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.

The full company consists of twelve professional actors, including ADK Shakes Artistic Director Tara Bradway and Executive Director Patrick Siler. The casting process became particularly interesting this year when Bradway and Siler decided to double-cast Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, allowing the actors to play the same characters in both versions of the Prince of Denmark's tale.

The company has celebrated two successful summers in the Adirondack region, where their unique Shakespeare IN THE RAW performance style has gained attention from audiences and communities alike. Described as a "head first, no-safety-net dive into Shakespeare," this original approach strips away all extraneous elements from production, leaving just the actors, the audience and the words. The result is an intense theatrical experience in which the actors lead their audience directly into the world of the play. As Bradway explains "It is rare to see the work done with this level of honesty and absolutely should not be missed."

ADK Shakes' mainstage season will open on July 28th with a performance of Twelfth Night at the Boathouse Theater in Schroon Lake. Hamlet is set to open August 3rd, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will open August 5th, both at the same venue. Performances will take place primarily at the Boathouse Theater, the Scaroon Manor Amphitheater and the Lake Placid Center for the Arts. The mainstage season will run July 28th through August 18th, where the company will close with a final performance of Hamlet at the LPCA. The Acting Company will include Tara Bradway, Mitchell Conway, Ross Hamman, Daniel Jimenez, Julia Jones, Collin McConnell, Shannon Pritchard, Rachel Ritacco, Patrick Siler, Lindsay Tanner, Aaron White and Kim Wong.