CANTON, MI- The Michigan Shakespeare Festival, the Official Shakespeare Festival of the State of Michigan, opens its 2023 Season with preview performances of Shakespeare’s Macbeth on Tuesday, July 18; Shakespeare’s Pericles, Prince of Tyre on Thursday, July 20, and Georges Feydeau’s A Flea In Her Ear on Thursday, July 27.

The Festival’s Opening Night will be Friday, July 21 featuring a Bard Talk prior to the performance at 7:05 pm, the performance along with 2024’s Season announced from the stage, and toasts with the company to follow. 2023’s production of Macbeth features Festival Fight Director, David Blixt, as the tragic hero, Rico Bruce Wade as his friend, Banquo, Ian Geers as Macduff, and Festival Artistic Director Janice L Blixt both directs and portrays Lady Macbeth.

Set in Scotland, 1040, the production is a dark and paranoid look at the real tragedy of a good man brought down by ambition and reckless thinking with extensive stage combat and powerful imagery.

The seldom-produced Jacobean play Pericles, Prince of Tyre, is the second Shakespeare in this season’s rotation. Director Robert Kauzlaric reimagines this play as to a beautiful Mediterranean adventure with strong themes of family and honor.

Featuring Warren Jackson as Pericles and Faith Berry (2022’s Anne Page in Merry Wives and Gower in Henry V) as Marina, this production relies on nontraditional staging and projections design by Dustin D. Miller.

2023’s non-Shakespearean play is Georges Feydeau’s bubbly French farce A Flea In Her Ear. Featuring Shawn Pfautsch (MSF’s 2014 Hamlet and 2015 Prince Hal) as a stuffy businessman and Sarah Ann Leahy as his lively and lovely wife who, in the course of trying to help their marital issues, end up meeting an hilarious cast of ridiculous oddballs who frequent a rather disreputable hotel. With a style like a bawdy Wilde or a more frantic Frasier, A Flea In Her Ear is a brand-new adaptation of the original by Janice L Blixt, who also directs.

Returning performers Alan Ball, Faith Berry, Ian Geers, Sarah Ann Leahy, Shawn Pfautsch, Lauren Grace Thompson, and Victor Yang, join Michigan favorites Jaelyn Raiford and Rico Bruce Wade and the debut performances at the MSF of Tehreem Chaudhry, Robert Hunter Bry, Warren Jackson, Lance Johnson, Jason LaCombe, Aarti Pradhan, Avanti Pradhan, Richie Villafuerte, and Christopher Vizurraga.

Artistic Associate Kate Hopgood returns to the MSF as Composer and Sound Designer following her Broadway debut with Noah Haidle’s Birthday Candles last year and Diane D. Fairchild is back as Lighting Designer. Costumers Aly Renee Amidei, Lauren Montgomery, and Suzanne Young rejoin the MSF company as do Scenic Designer Evan Frank and Properties Designer Adam Kruger. Elise Kauzlaric returns as Dialect and Foreign Language Coach. Forrest Hejkal debuts with MSF as Technical Director with Berkeley Tistle assisting and Viscaya Wilson as Charge Artist / Assistant Scenic Designer, and Tyler Pavlik as Production Assistant. The Stage Management Team is headed by Lina Benich, assisted by Devon Currie and Siri Quist.

All performances will take place at Canton’s Village Theater, 50400 Charry Hill Rd, Canton.
Tickets for MACBETH; PERICLES, PRINCE OF TYRE and A FLEA IN HER EAR are now available:
Online at www.MichiganShakespeareFestival.com
Or call the box office at 734.394.5300
Preview Performance of MACBETH – July 18 at 7:30 pm
Preview Performance of MACBETH – July 19 at 7:30 pm
Preview Performance of PERICLES – July 20 at 7:30 pm
OPENING NIGHT Performance of MACBETH – July 21 at 7:30 pm
Preview Performance of PERICLES – July 22 at 2 pm
OPENING NIGHT Performance of PERICLES – July 22 at 7:30 pm
MACBETH – July 23 at 3 pm
Preview Performance of A FLEA IN HER EAR – July 27 at 7:30 pm
Preview Performance of A FLEA IN HER EAR – July 28 at 7:30 pm
MACBETH – July 29 at 2 pm
OPENING NIGHT Performance of A FLEA IN HER EAR – July 29 at 7:30 pm
PERICLES – July 30 at 3 pm
PERICLES – August 2 at 3 pm
MACBETH – August 3 at 7:30 pm
Contact for Press Release:
Janice L Blixt, Producing Artistic Director
The Michigan Shakespeare Festival
AD@michiganshakespearefestival.com
PERICLES – August 4 at 7:30 pm
PERICLES – August 5 at 2 pm
MACBETH – August 5 at 7:30 pm
A FLEA IN HER EAR – August 6 at 3 pm
A FLEA IN HER EAR – August 9 at 3 pm
A FLEA IN HER EAR – August 10 at 7:30 pm
MACBETH – August 11 at 7:30 pm
A FLEA IN HER EAR – August 12 at 2 pm
PERICLES – August 12 at 7:30 pm
MACBETH – August 13 at 3 pm
MACBETH – August 16 at 3 pm
PERICLES – August 17 at 7:30 pm
A FLEA IN HER EAR – August 18 at 7:30 pm
PERICLES – August 19 at 2 pm
MACBETH – August 19 at 7:30 pm
A FLEA IN HER EAR – August 20 at 3 pm