TIRANA, Jan. 8 – Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” directed by United States’ John Blondell will be the great premiere the Albanian National Theatre plans to stage in the first half of this year. Kristaq Skrami says that Blondell, one of Shakespeare’s most famous researcher, will start auditions this month before continuing working to stage the play by next March.
Blondell’s cooperation with the Albanian National Theatre emerged last year when Albania participated in London’s Globe to Globe festival with part II of Shakespeare’s Henry VI. Blondell was the director of the Macedonian theatre performing Henry VI’s part III.
John Blondell is Professor of Theatre Arts at Westmont College. He is co-founder and director of the Lit Moon Theatre Company, an award-winning international theatre ensemble, and founder of the Lit Moon World Theater Festival, an international theatre festival produced yearly in Santa Barbara. In 2006, he created the Lit Moon World Shakespeare Festival, the only international Shakespeare Festival in the United States, and one of seven in the world.
Believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596, Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta. These include the adventures of four young Athenian lovers and a group of six amateur actors, who are controlled and manipulated by the fairies who inhabit the forest in which most of the play is set. The play, categorized as a comedy, is one of Shakespeare’s most popular works for the stage and is widely performed across the world.
“We believe this season will be ambitious not only because of the titles of the productions but also because of the directors who will put them on stage,” says Skrami.
The play is expected to make its premiere next May.
Oedipus the King
Sophocles’ “Oedipus the King” will be the first premiere at the National Theatre in Tirana next March. Directed by Kosovo’s Ilir Bokshi, the tragedy will comes as cooperation between the Albanian and Kosovo national theatres.
The director of the National Theatre Skrami describes Bokshi as one of the most creative directors of the younger generation, appreciated not only in the pan-Albanian spaces. “This premiere comes as a co-production between the Albanian and Kosovo theatres. The Kosovo theatre is bringing the managing cast such as the director, the composer, the stage and costume designers while Albania will provide the performers,” Skrami says.
Union of the Theatres of Europe
Another big event the Albanian performing arts are expected to host is the summit of The Union of the Theatres of Europe next March. “This is a good opportunity to promote not only the institution of the National Theatre but also our cultural and art heritage,” says director Skrami.
An alliance of European public theatres, the Union of the Theatres of Europe serves to promote European integration through cultural interaction. It is an association that does intensive transnational theatre work with more than 10.000 performances and 3.000.000 spectators per season; offering festivals, exhibitions, workshops, collaborations with drama schools, colloquiums and co-productions throughout Europe.
