Tag Archives: Cincinnati Shakespeare Company

ArtsWave has announced that CSC will receive $70,000 for Season 19

CINCINNATI, June 25, 2012 – Cincinnati Shakespeare Company received an impact grant of $70,000 from ArtsWave to support the company’s efforts in bringing Shakespeare and the classics to life for the Greater Cincinnati community.

“ArtsWave has played such an important role in helping arts organizations of all disciplines reach out to audiences all over the region. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is grateful to have received funding from them since 1999. We are thrilled that ArtsWave has determined that the impact we are making in the community has warranted an increase,” said Brian Isaac Phillips, Producing Artistic Director.

This year marks the first time that ArtsWave has made grant-making decisions based on the community impact of the recipient organizations, using data and measurement strategies chosen by the organizations. Grantmaking committees also considered criteria such as leadership, stability, and collaborations with other arts organizations. Community volunteers committed over $9.4 million for impact grants to thirty-three local arts organizations ranging from $10,000 to over $2 million.

“The new requirements of ArtsWave’s granting process have asked us to look at ourselves from a different angle. We know the arts are good. But now, with these new measurements, we can begin to talk about WHY and HOW that good can affect the lives of the people of Cincinnati and the region,” says Managing Director, Lettie Van Hemert. “This process has given us some wonderful new tools with which we can more clearly tell our story. And it has helped us realize that we directly contribute to making Cincinnati a better place to live. ”

In preliminary data, CSC found that 64% of students surveyed were more comfortable with the arts after one visit to CSC to watch a play. 90% of teachers surveyed said that visits to or from CSC increased the quality of their school’s curriculum.

Jay Woffington, Executive Director, says “Every dollar this company takes in is reinvested in our programming. Every additional dollar from ArtsWave will help us reach further. Last year Shakespeare in the Park performed in twelve neighborhoods around the city, from Boone Co. to West Chester. This year, because of ArtsWave, we can add tour dates to bring Shakespeare to even more families. We can take productions and workshops into more schools to give many students the only theatre education available to them after rounds of funding cuts.”

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company wishes to thank the thousands of people who contribute to ArtsWave’s annual community campaign—donors who recognize the importance of the arts to everyone in Cincinnati and the region. Van Hemert says, “It’s really all about the people in the audience, whether it’s here in our theatre, in a school auditorium, or sitting in the grass in the new Washington Park. It’s gratifying and humbling to know that we’re making people’s lives just a little richer.”

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About Season 19:

Season 19 is generously sponsored by The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company receives operating support from The Ohio Arts Council and is supported, in part, by the generosity of thousands of individuals and businesses that give annually to ArtsWave. The season design sponsor is Judge Mark Painter. Production dates, tickets and info for Season 19 are available online at http://www.cincyshakes.com/season-19.html

About Cincinnati Shakespeare Company:

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is a professional theatre company dedicated to bringing Shakespeare and the classics to life for audiences of all ages. Located in the heart of downtown Cincinnati, CSC produces a dozen mainstage productions each season. CSC employs a resident company of actors and artists who live and work in Cincinnati year-round, and performs on a Small Professional Theatre contract with Actors’ Equity Association. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s Education and Outreach Programs see more than 22,000 students each season by taking Shakespeare into schools, parks, community centers and by hosting educational matinees of mainstage productions at its home on Race Street. In Season 20, CSC will become one of only a handful of companies worldwide to have produced Shakespeare’s 38-play canon in its entirety. CSC is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization and all donations are tax deductible.

Travis McElroy, Nick Rose & Billy Chace. Photo by Jeanna Vella.

Special BOGO (Buy One, Get One Free) Tickets for Final 6 Performances of THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) !

• Fri-Sat, June 22-23 at 7:30pm
• Sun, June 24 at 2pm
• Thu-Sat, June 28-30

No coupon code needed. Discount automatically applied at checkout.

Travis McElroy, Nick Rose & Billy Chace. Photo by Jeanna Vella.

The annual tradition featuring an audience favorite comedy
returns for a limited run, June 8-30, 2012

CINCINNATI, May 2, 2012 — Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is proud to announce a new annual Cincinnati tradition of the popular production of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” by Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield, the madcap comedy that condenses all thirty-eight of Shakespeare’s plays into just ninety-seven minutes. Featuring Billy Chace, Travis McElroy and Nick Rose, “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” opens June 8, 2011 and runs through June 30, 2012.

“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” features three actors on a mission: to bring the entirety of Shakespeare’s canon to the stage in a single evening of theatre. Follow along as they careen wildly through all the comedies, histories and tragedies using a trunkful of props, wigs, and ridiculous costumes. Full of clever quips as well as silly slapstick, the script’s affectionate and irreverent treatment of Shakespeare’s plays has made it one of the most popular shows in America and England. Previous productions at Cincinnati Shakespeare Company have broken box office records and the title is one of the most requested by audience members. “I have never had so many requests to bring the production back so often. It is an absolute favorite!” says Producing Artistic Director Brian Isaac Phillips.

Authors Adam Long, Daniel Singer and Jess Winfield formed The Reduced Shakespeare Company in Los Angeles in 1981 and debuted “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” in 1987 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. As they began touring the United States, the RSC and the play gained critical acclaim, praised by The Los Angeles Times as “wildly funny” and in the Montreal Gazette as “the funniest play you are likely to see in your lifetime.” In 1996, after years of touring the United States and abroad, The Reduced Shakespeare Company opened its extended run of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” and “The Complete History of America (Abridged)” at the Criterion Theatre in London’s West End. In 1997, the play was nominated for England’s prestigious Olivier Award for Best Comedy. The Reduced Shakespeare Company, refreshed often with new company members, continues to create fast, funny condensations of everything from the Bible, to Hollywood, to the Wide World of Sports from their home base in London.

“Whether you love Shakespeare or hate Shakespeare,” says Producing Artistic Director Brian Isaac Phillips, “this script will leave you in stitches. Over the years, audiences of all ages have told us how much they love seeing three guys in sneakers do every play from “Romeo and Juliet” to “Titus Andronicus”. We have never done the show with this combination of actors, and we know their comedic timing is excellent! We plan to have a lot of fun.” CSC subscribers can purchase tickets for 15% off. Discounts are also available for students, as the show is highly-popular with teens, pre-teens and their families.

“The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” features CSC Resident Ensemble Members Billy Chace and Nick Rose joined by Travis McElroy. Mr. Chace was in last year’s production of “Complete Works” as well as the ever wildly successful and highly comedic “Every Christmas Story Ever Told (and Then Some!)” this past holiday. Nick Rose is an audience favorite a 15 year veteran of the company. He joins the cast for the first time since the 2000 CSC production of “Complete Works”. A new cast member, Travis McElroy recently appeared at CSC in this season’s “Henry VIII: All is True”. He is part of the popular comedy podcast “My Brother, My Brother and Me”, which is a part of the “Maximum Fun” production organization and is available at maximumfun.org and on iTunes.

Performances of “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” are scheduled Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings at 7:30pm and Sunday afternoons at 2:00pm beginning June 8 and continuing through June 30, 2012. Previews are on June 6 & 7 at 7:30pm and tickets are $14. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is located at 719 Race Street, downtown Cincinnati, two blocks west of the Aronoff Center. Single Ticket prices range from $22-$28 on Thursday nights and Sunday matinees and from $26-32 on Friday and Saturday nights. CSC Subscribers receive a 15% discount on single tickets. Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express are accepted. Discounts are available for students and group discounts are available for any group with six people or more. To purchase tickets or for more information, call the CSC Box Office at 513.381.BARD (2273), or visit us online at tickets.cincyshakes.com.

Cincinnati Shakespeare Company adds Business Leader
Jay Woffington as Executive Director 

Woffington to advance the strategic and financial side
of region’s only classical theatre

Jay Woffington.

CINCINNATI, May 20, 2012 – Cincinnati Shakespeare Company has hired Jay Woffington, former CEO of Bridge Worldwide and Global President of Possible Worldwide, as its new Executive Director. Woffington will start with the company July 1.

“After an inspiring Season 18 which included critically acclaimed productions of The Grapes of Wrath, Sense and Sensibility, and Love’s Labour’s Lost, Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is poised to accelerate that momentum through the addition of a proven business and organizational leader such as Woffington,” said Brian Isaac Phillips, Producing Artistic Director.

The move follows several solid seasons of artistic success coupled with nearly a 60% increase in ticket sales over the past 5 years. The hiring of Woffington signifies a transformative move by the company to increase the business and strategic capacity of CSC while ensuring continued artistic performance.

“What has always excited me professionally is the opportunity to help a creative organization make a step-change in achieving its vision,” said Woffington, who, as CEO of Bridge Worldwide and Global President of Possible Worldwide, grew the creative marketing agency from one office of 30 people to a global network of over 1,000 people in 10 countries. During his tenure, the agency won coveted creative awards such as two Gold Lions at the Cannes International Festival of Creativity and developed an organizational culture recognized as one of the Top 25 Best Places to Work in America for five consecutive years.

“Over the past few years, Brian has assembled an amazingly talented ensemble and has proved that they can tackle the most challenging creative projects and deliver in a world-class fashion. This makes it an opportune time for me to help ensure the business and strategic capacity of the organization is there to enable this quality consistently while broadening our reach throughout the region.”

CSC Managing Director, Lettie Van Hemert is thrilled about this addition to the management team, adding, “There has been much great work and success in my five years with the Company and we are ready to capitalize on that momentum. Jay not only shares our vision for the future, but he knows how to get us there. With Jay’s inspiration, CSC will become a permanent landmark on the map of Cincinnati’s treasured institutions.”

Woffington is not an entirely new face to CSC, having been on the Board of Trustees for the past 6 years. Woffington also has been a key member of the Executive Committee of the Board, leading the development of the group’s long-term strategic plan.

“I’m very passionate about CSC’s commitment to producing inspired classical theatre unseen elsewhere in our entire region and at the same time impacting the community through our Education Program and Community Parks Outreach. This ‘art-community impact’ combination is not only rewarding to me personally, but it also offers a glimpse of the way professional theatre can make a bigger difference in our city. CSC offers a perfect blend of my leadership experience and business skills and my passion for theatre.”

Woffington’s theatre bug is credited to his father, a high school drama teacher and play director in Pittsburgh. “As a second grader, I was a child extra in my dad’s production of To Kill a Mockingbird (a classic CSC will undertake this September).” Locally, Woffington has acted at several community theatres as well as the Covedale Center for the Performing Arts and New Edgecliff Theatre (alongside CSC regular Kate Wilford in Death of a Salesman). Jay has also directed two CEA-award winning musicals (West Side Story and Children of Eden) for Footlighters in Newport, KY and will be directing Our Town there this fall.

Woffington also held a leadership position at P&G, where as a Brand Manager, he led the $2.3 billion acquisition of The Iams Company and was recognized by Advertising Age Magazine as one of the Top 100 marketers of 2001. Woffington began his career in investment banking at First Chicago (in Chicago and London).

Jay has two children, Wendy (8) and Brett (5). Woffington holds his masters from Northwestern’s Kellogg Graduate School of Management and his undergraduate degree from Duke University.

About Season 19:
Season 19 is generously sponsored by The Otto M. Budig Family Foundation. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company receives operating support from The Ohio Arts Council and is supported, in part, by the generosity of thousands of individuals and businesses that give annually to ArtsWave. The season design sponsor is Judge Mark Painter. Production dates and info on Season 19 are available online at http://www.cincyshakes.com/season-19.html

About Cincinnati Shakespeare Company:
Cincinnati Shakespeare Company is a professional theatre company dedicated to bringing Shakespeare and the classics to life for audiences of all ages. Located in the heart of downtown Cincinnati, CSC produces a dozen mainstage productions each season. CSC employs a resident company of actors and artists who live and work in Cincinnati year-round, and performs on a Small Professional Theatre contract with Actors’ Equity Association. Cincinnati Shakespeare Company’s Education and Outreach Programs see more than 22,000 students each season by taking Shakespeare into schools, parks, community centers and by hosting educational matinees of mainstage productions at its home on Race Street. In Season 20, CSC will become one of only a handful of companies worldwide to have produced Shakespeare’s 38-play canon in its entirety. CSC is a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization and all donations are tax deductible.