SANTA CRUZ — Everything is in place for Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s 11th season, which is its biggest yet.
Past seasons have consisted of two William Shakespeare plays and one non-Shakespeare play, but this year consists of two Shakespeare plays and two non-Shakespeare plays, both of which the company has never performed before. From the Bard’s iconic drama “Hamlet” and legendary comedy “As You Like it” to Oscar Wilde’s “The Importance of Being Earnest” and Tennessee Williams’ “The Glass Menagerie,” all of this year’s plays run the gamut in terms of mood, time period and setting, but all are unified by the theme of “Generations.”
“All four plays deal very directly with the younger generation inheriting the world and, in some cases, having to do battle for it with the older generation and, in some cases, having to do battle with themselves,” said Artistic Director Charles Pasternak.
Pasternak said a goal is to choose plays that complement each other.
“When our audience sees the season, they can hear the echoes and discussions going on among the plays,” he said. “I pick them artistically in the hope that they all speak to each other, that they tell a sort of thematic story together as a season.”
Another factor Pasternak highlighted is to select Shakespeare plays the company has never done before. In the case of “As You Like it,” which kicks off the season July 13, that was one the company has not done in more than a decade. The 1599 comedy centers around Rosalind, the daughter of a duke who escapes persecution in her uncle’s court with her cousin Celia into the Forest of Arden and falls in love with a man named Orlando.
Pasternak said “As You Like it” is his favorite Shakespeare comedy.
“Rosalind is one of the Bard’s great creations,” he said. “Her education of Orlando in terms of how to love is some of the most beautiful, witty, funny language about love.”
Moreover, Pasternak said it was one of Shakespeare’s “hangout plays.”
“It’s sort of Shakespeare’s ‘Dazed and Confused,'” he said. “There’s not much of a plot once everyone’s in the forest, there’s just a lot of hanging out and talking and learning and growing before everyone returns to the real world.”
“As You Like it” will be performed July 13 to Sept. 1 and will be directed by Carey Perloff, the former longtime director of American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Her version will be depicting the forest as a theater backstage.
“She’s finding a very direct connection in terms of looking at our Forest of Arden as the backstage of a theater, a place where anything’s possible, a place where we create together,” said Pasternak. “Our audience will see that with a lot of costume racks on stage and changing while out there, sort of a meta theatrical presentation. I think it will be wild and wonderful.”
Next on tap is “Hamlet,” the timeless tragedy of a Danish prince who exacts revenge upon his uncle Claudius for murdering his father so he could become king and marry Hamlet’s mother.
“It’s one of the greatest meditations on what it means to be a citizen, a good person, a son, an inheritor, what is owed, what one owes the world,” said Pasternak.
“Hamlet” will run July 31 to Aug. 31 and is directed by Susan Dalian, who changed the setting to the late ’60s with a court resembling the Richard Nixon White House.
“There’s political reflections of today and political reflections of Shakespeare’s time,” said Pasternak. “The young people in the play are variations on the counterculture of the time.”
The first of two non-Shakespeare plays is “The Importance of Being Earnest,” Wilde’s 1895 satire of Victorian London society and the cultural norms therein. It will run July 14 to Sept. 7 and be directed by Paul Mullins.
“(Wilde) was a genius, and ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ is his masterpiece,” said Pasternak. “It will be a wild, enjoyable night of comedy.”
For the first time, Santa Cruz Shakespeare will extend its season into fall with its production of “The Glass Menagerie.” The 1944 play was Williams’ first big hit and centers around a Mississippi warehouse worker and aspiring poet named Tom who lives with his Southern belle mother Amanda and mentally fragile sister Laura. “The Glass Menagerie” was one of the first instances of a “memory play,” where the events are based in-universe on Tom’s recollection and may not be accurate.
“‘The Glass Menagerie’ is one of the great American dramas about family and about generations,” said Pasternak, who also directed the play and portrays Jim O’Connor. “It’s a beautiful meditation that completes our consideration of the theme of generations this season.”
“Menagerie” will run Sept. 11 to 28.
Returning this year will be Santa Cruz Shakespeare’s series of Fringe Shows, where audiences can reserve spots and pay what they wish. This year’s lineup includes staged readings of “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” by Christopher Durang — who died in January — on Aug. 6; and “A Room in the Castle,” Laura Gunderson’s play focusing on the female characters of “Hamlet” outside of the main play’s action. It will also feature an intern production of “Proof,” David Auburn’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a female mathematician.
Pasternak hopes the season gives audiences feelings of insight, inspiration and excitement.
“Shakespeare’s greatness is often in his ambiguity and in the questions that he asks, not in the answers that he offers,” he said. “I hope audiences come excited and with open minds that they both have a wonderful evening of entertainment because all these plays have incredible stories, but also that they leave with their worlds widened.”
All performances will take place in the Audrey Stanley Grove at DeLaveaga Park, 855 Branciforte Drive, Santa Cruz. For tickets and dates, go to Santacruzshakespeare.org/season-2024/.