Featuring the Free Shout-Out Tempest, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, A Streetcar Named Desire, Hamlet, and the Barbara Kingsolver Literary Salon
Please join us for our expanded 16th performance season in Memphis featuring William Shakespeare’s The Tempest and Hamlet, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire, and the works of Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Barbara Kingsolver in our Southern Literary Salon.
We will also launch our inaugural Classical Theatre Apprentice Program for early-career professionals from around the country who will continue their classical training with our teachers, actors, stage management, and technical theatre professionals for eight months while in residency in Memphis.
Committed to classical arts innovation in the United States, we are now in our 16th season as the State’s only permanently-based, professional, classical theatre. Acclaimed by the National Endowment for the Arts for its results-based Education and Outreach Center, we are committed to artistic excellence, teaching innovation, and social betterment.
We believe that the plays of William Shakespeare and classical theatre are for everyone; that education, training, and community outreach are equal colleagues to live performance; that the arts must move closer to the center of every Tennessee child’s formal education; and that our State needs the poetry, collaboration, and healing truths the world’s finest writers and artists provide.
Across 15 seasons, TSC has achieved over 700,000 points of contact through 65 productions in 40 community venues; educated 300,000 students in 130 area schools; served the health needs of 1,000 veterans at the Memphis V.A. Medical Center; and brought Shakespeare and creative writing to 500 youths in three detention centers.
“We are now a year-round classical theatre and education innovation center with a budget that for our first time exceeds one million dollars,” says Founder and Artistic Director, Dan McCleary. “TSC’s Board of Directors, our stalwart individual donors and patrons, our corporate sponsors, and our State and federal governments have made possible over these past three years our staff’s continued work and commitment to our community in ways we had never imaged. And now, we get to come back out swinging for the fences with more performance weeks, projecting more students contacted, more military Veterans cared for, more underserved communities accessed, and more detained juveniles taught than ever in our history. We have a deep desire to be of service to everyone in our community through Shakespeare. We are expanding our personnel capacity this season for the best reason: our work is needed and wanted. For us, that’s the best feeling in the world.”
The 2023-24 Performance Season
The 7th Annual Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series:
THE TEMPEST
the final Romance by William Shakespeare
directed by Dan McCleary
October 5-22 in various outdoor locations in west TN (free)
October 28-29 on the Tabor Stage (ticketed)
generously sponsored by Evans Petree PC in Memphis, the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Shakespeare Fund of Theater League of Kansas City
On the mystical isle once ruled by the witch Sycorax, her demi-devil son Caliban and the airy spirit Ariel held sway – until 12 years ago. The betrayed and deposed Duke Prospero of Milan and his infant daughter Miranda were shipwrecked there in a cast-off, rotten boat – given up for dead. Indenturing Ariel and Caliban, raising his daughter, and teaching himself magical arts, Prospero now sets his sights on mortal revenge when his enemies appear on the sea’s horizon. He raises a tempest to shipwreck them, but this will not end in tragedy. When the royals and clowns arrive, a life-long lesson in redemption and forgiveness unfolds within a musical harmony of the sea. What Miranda will describe as a “brave new world” will be Shakespeare’s farewell to the stage.
Running without intermission, this production features 13 actors, including Michael Khanlarian as Prospero. Bring a chair and picnic; first come/first seated. And for the first time in the Series’ history, The Tempest will play indoors on TSC’s Tabor Stage for its two final performance for half-priced admission. For these two performances, patrons should call to reserve and purchase seats while they last.
Performance Schedule:
Thursday, October 5 at 7:00 pm: Downtown Wiseacre Brewery
398 South B.B. King Boulevard, Memphis; no reservations required
Friday, October 6 at 7:00 pm: Overton Square’s Chimes Square Amphitheatre
2101 Madison Avenue, Memphis; no reservations required
Saturday, October 7 at 4:00 pm: Woodlawn
24545 TN-57, LaGrange, TN; no reservations required
Sunday, October 8 at 3:00 pm: Dixon Gallery & Gardens
4339 Park Avenue, Memphis; no reservations required
Friday, October 13 at 7:00 pm: Bartlett Performing Arts Center
3663 Appling Road, Bartlett; no reservations required
Sunday, October 15 at 4:00 pm: Overton Park Shell
1928 Poplar Avenue, Memphis; no reservations required
Thursday, October 19 at 7:00 pm: Broad Avenue Wiseacre Brewery
2783 Broad Avenue, Memphis; no reservations required
Friday, October 20 at 7:00 pm: St. George’s Episcopal Church
2425 S. Germantown Rd., Germantown; no reservations required
Saturday, October 21 at 7:00 pm: Collierville Town Square’s Train Depot
96 N. Center Street, Collierville; no reservations required
Sunday, October 22 at 3:00 pm: Davies Manor
9336 Davies Plantation Road, Bartlett; no reservations required
Saturday, October 28 at 7:30 pm: Tabor Stage
TSC; half-price admission charged; reserve seats with TSC’s Box Office
Sunday, October 29 at 3:00 pm: Tabor Stage
TSC; half-price admission charged; reserve seats with TSC’s Box Office
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST
a trivial comedy for serious people by Oscar Wilde
directed by Stephanie Shine
November 30 – December 17
Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 pm/Sundays at 3:00 pm
Tabor Stage
generously sponsored by Kathryn and Jim Gilliland, and Anne and Michael Keeney
The Irish playwright’s famed 1895 play remains, quite possibly, the wittiest comedy written in the English language. Two bachelors, Jack and Algy, create alter-egos named “Ernest” in order to escape life’s occasional inconveniences. The blithe deceptions descend into bizarre misadventures when they woo two ladies who choose only to love men who, coincidentally, are only named “Ernest.”
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
the drama by Tennessee Williams
directed by Dan McCleary
February 1-18, 2024
Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 pm/Sundays at 3:00 pm
Tabor Stage
generously sponsored by Nancy R. Copp, and The Sims Family Charitable Trust
“I don’t tell the truth,” says Blanche, “I tell what ought to be the truth.” In post-WWII New Orleans, an Old South wanting to rest in peace is confronted by a shocking New South. The world of fantasy and magic cracks in its fragility as immigrant Stanley creates his path to the American Dream while the tortured Blanche tries desperately to cling to hers. Williams’ poetic and savage drama would change the course of playwrighting forever with this personal story that remains achingly modern.
“A Streetcar Named Desire” is presented by arrangement with Concord Theatricals on behalf of Samuel French, Inc. www.concordtheatricals.com. A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE is presented by special arrangement with the University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee.
HAMLET
the tragedy by William Shakespeare
directed by Stephanie Shine
April 4-21, 2024
Thursdays-Saturdays at 7:30 pm/Sundays at 3:00 pm (no April 20 performance)
Tabor Stage
generously sponsored by Pat and Ernest Kelly, and The Sims Family Charitable Trust
William Shakespeare couldn’t have known he was penning the human psyche into physical existence with this play, nor that the phrases and words he would create within it would remain foundational to our 21st Century metaphor. But what he did know was a popular story of familial revenge. In adding a spirit world and a questioning conscience to it, Shakespeare was informed by his personal life: his son Hamnet had died at age 11, he had written Brutus in Julius Caesar three years later, his father died two years after that, and after two years of drafts he released Hamlet. This was the story-stepstone that the fatherless son/sonless father needed in order to launch into his final cosmic masterwork four years later – King Lear. The Prince of Denmark does not consider his state and decisions alone, though. He has an audience.
THE CHILDREN’S LITERACY GALA
Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 6:00 pm
Tabor Stage
Our annual Gala performance will be ten months in the making and designed to raise over $170,000 to support this year’s expansive efforts of our Education and Outreach Center in Memphis. Programming will include a performance honoring the 400th anniversary of the publishing of the First Folio, and the second annual Educator of the Year Award (selected from teachers within Shelby County who activate Shakespeare’s stories in their classrooms).
The Southern Literary Salon:
THE BIBLE OF BARBARA KINGSOLVER
curated and directed by Stephanie Shine
Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 3:00 pm
Tabor Stage
generously sponsored by Dorothy O. Kirsch
A native of Kentucky, Barbara recently won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her novel, Demon Copperhead (a masterful re-telling of David Copperfield narrated by an Appalachian boy). Her novels include The Bean Trees, Animal Dreams, The Poisonwood Bible, Flight Behavior, and Unsheltered. She is also the author of poetry, essays, and nonfiction. Join us for selected readings from her works, a lively discussion, and a cocktail or two. At this time, the author is not expected to be present.
EDUCATION PROGRAMS
Funded in part by National Endowment for the Arts and Arts Midwest, Tennessee Arts Commission, International Paper, and TSC’s Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund
The Romeo and Juliet Project: The nation’s only program of its kind, in which our resident teacher-artists help 9th-graders understand that violence is not the answer to life’s complexities.
The Macbeth Initiative: This singular program for 12th-graders uses the great tragedy to explore personal ethical issues such as ambition and power.
Winter/Summer Shakespeare Camps
Elementary/Middle/High School Playshops and Residencies
OUTREACH PROGRAMS
Funded in part by FedEx Corporation, National Endowment for the Arts and Arts Midwest, Tennessee Arts Commission, AutoZone, and TSC’s Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Fund
Juvenile Justice Program: inspiring adolescents’ life-changes upon release from detainment through Shakespeare and our Poetic Justice Summer Camp. One of the few such programs in the nation.
Feast of Crispian-South: TSC is the only theatre in the nation with a program joined officially with the V.A. Medical Center to prepare our heroes in the PTSD and chemical dependency wards to re-enter the world with health and all they deserve.
TRAINING PROGRAMS
School Educator Training
Classical Theatre Apprentice Program: Eight early-career actors/managers/technicians/teachers drawn from around the country receive eight months of daily training while applying that learning in a practical theatre and education schedule.
Box Office
Purchase tickets online here or by calling (901) 759-0604. Open Monday-Friday from 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, and one hour prior to curtain. TSC is located at 7950 Trinity Road, Memphis, TN 38018-6297.
The Free Shout-Out Shakespeare Series production of The Tempest is free of charge, does not require reservations/tickets, and performs outdoors in multiple off-site venues. NEW this season: two added performances of The Tempest will be inside on TSC’s Tabor Stage for half-off admission in all three seating sections at $20 (Students $10/Seniors $15).
The Importance of Being Earnest, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Hamlet Preview performance tickets are $22 in all Seating Sections. All other performances in Seating Section One are $42 (Students $22/Seniors $37), and in Seating Sections Two and Three are $32 (Students $22/Seniors $27). Thursdays are FREE WILL KIDS’ NIGHTS: up to 4 children 17 years and younger may attend for free when accompanied by at least one, full-price-paying Adult guardian; while seats last. Free Will Kids’ Night tickets must be purchased through the Box Office either via phone at (901) 759-0604 or in-person.
Southern Literary Salon: The Bible of Barbara Kingsolver tickets in Seating Section One are $29 (Students $22/Seniors $26). Seating Sections Two and Three are $22 (Students $17/Seniors $22).
The Children’s Literacy Gala single tickets are $125, with 8-ticket Platinum/6-ticket Gold/4-ticket Silver Table Sponsorships available with tiered benefits. Please contact Stephanie Shine for details at (901) 759-0620.
No refunds/exchanges. House opens 30 minutes prior to curtain. Credit Card charges require a $1 per-ticket fee. Casts and schedules subject to change with notice. Free parking and covered drop-off at the front entrance.
Season 16 Sponsors and Partners
TSC’s generous sponsors of its season, productions, and Education and Outreach Program include FedEx, International Paper, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Midwest, ArtsMemphis, Tennessee Arts Commission, Independent Bank, Evans Petree PC, Kathryn and Jim Gilliland, Mike and Anne Orgill Keeney, First Horizon Foundation through an ArtsFirst grant, AutoZone, Campbell Clinic, the family of Pat and Ernest Kelly, Dorothy O. Kirsch, The Sims Family Charitable Trust, Nancy R. Copp, The Shakespeare Fund of Theater League of Kansas City, the Jack Jones Children’s Literacy Fund, The Sims Family Charitable Trust, the family of Owen and Margaret Wellford Tabor, the Barbara B. Apperson Angel Fund, and the Dunbar Abston Fund for Sustainable Excellence.
TSC’s season is funded under a Grant Contract with the State of Tennessee; and is being supported, in whole or in part, by federal award number SLFRP5534, awarded to the State of Tennessee by the U.S. Department of Treasury.
