Stolen Shakespeare Guild announces 2009 season

by Shawn Parikh

Stolen Shakespeare Guild of Fort Worth has one more production left for their current 2008 season: The York Mystery Plays. But they are already gearing up for the next year by announcing the shows for 2009. They perform at the Fort Worth Community Arts Center and season tickets are already available for $45-50 and can be purchased online. Here is the lineup:

• The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet from February 20 - March 1. By William Shakespeare. Despite their families' mutual hatred, Romeo and Juliet fall in love and marry, and when circumstances force them apart, they kill themselves to be united in death.
• The 2009 Condensed Shakespeare Festival from June 19 - June 28. Short versions of Elizabethan plays. Taming of the Shrew, by William Shakespeare. The Mistress of the Inn, by Carlo Goldoni. Instant Macbeth, by William Shakespeare and adapted by Edward Huntingdon.
• Kiss Me Kate from August 7 - August 16. Music and Lyrics by Cole Porter, Book by Samuel and Bella Spewack. Taking its inspiration from Shakespeare, this hilarious romp recounts the backstage and onstage antics of two feuding romances during an out-of-town tryout for a musical adaptation of The Taming of the Shrew.
• A Christmas Carol from December 11 - 13. By Charles Dickens, adapted by JaceSon Barrus. Cranky and curmudgeonly Scrooge learns the error of his unkind ways and is taught the true meaning of the holidays when he is visited by the ghost of his late business partner and the spirits of Christmas past, present, and future.