November 4, 2009

Webster University’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts Presents “The Winter’s Tale”

Webster University’s Conservatory of Theatre Arts presents William Shakespeare’s “The Winter’s Tale,” Nov. 18-22 in the Browning Theatre of Webster’s Loretto-Hilton Center, 130 Edgar Road. Curtain time is 8 p.m., except Sunday, which will have a 2 p.m. matinee only. Admission is $12 for the general public and $6 for senior adults and students. For ticket reservations, call the Fine Arts Hotline at 968-7128.

One of Shakespeare's final plays, “The Winter's Tale” is a romance with combined elements of both comedy and tragedy. A royal family is torn apart when jealous King Leontes imprisons his pregnant wife, Hermione, on charges of adultery with his friend King Polixenes of Bohemia, and then casts away his newly born daughter Perdita. Sixteen years later in the pastoral haven of Bohemia, the young girl raised by two shepherds falls in love with a prince. Their love begins a magical journey that could lead to the healing of her family’s sorrows.

Tim Ocel, visiting guest director, directs “The Winter’s Tale.”

Tim Ocel’s directing work for regional theater and opera includes Shakespeare Santa Cruz (Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Taming of the Shrew, The Winter’s Tale, All’s Well That Ends Well); Theatre Emory in Atlanta (The Greek Project: Agamemnon/Electra, The Good Person of Setzuan, G. B. Shaw’s Back to Methuselah); Georgia Shakespeare Festival (King Lear, Measure for Measure, and Richard II); and Opera Theatre of St. Louis (La Boheme, Carmen, Arianna, Armida). Mr. Ocel also has artistic relationships with Indiana Repertory Theatre (Romeo and Juliet, Art, Death of a Salesman) and Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY, where he is currently an Artistic Associate (Evie’s Waltz, Twelve Angry Men, Ghosts, Neil Simon’s BB Trilogy).  Past productions for the Conservatory include The Cherry Orchard, The Importance of Being Ernest, Ten Little Indians, and The Caucasian Chalk Circle.

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