The Scranton Shakes perform Shakespeare plays, musicals, new works, workshops, special yearlong events and educational programming.
The Scranton Shakes are in its 13th season of free professional theatre. Micheal Bradshaw Flynn, who is the artistic director, co-founded the festival in 2011 when a group of actors performed “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at Nay Aug Park. The mission was to provide free theater to the public.
For complete schedule of this yea’s Scranton Shakes Festival, go to www.scrantonshakes.com.
This season marks 53 total productions for the summer season. With the education department, “Peter and the Starcatcher,” “Heathers the Musical, “The Twelfth Night” have been produced among others. They have also produced the world premiere of “Hood: The Musical,” “Fairycakes,” and “Cabaret.” “Hamlet” was performed for the 10th season at the Scranton Iron Furnaces.
This year’s theme is “Mother.” There will be six productions, four main stage productions that are performed by the professional company and two by the youth ensemble. The main stage will be performing “Gypsy” and “Next to Normal” and the Shakespeare plays “Titus Andronicus” and “The Winter’s Tale.” The youth ensemble is performing Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and the musical “Into the Woods.” The Youth Orchestra will be playing in the pit for the production of “Gypsy” and “Into The Woods.”
Lizzie Gumula is in her ninth season with the Scranton Shakes Festival.
“I became involved when I was a student myself at the age of 16 when Michael Flynn invited me to a rehearsal pianist for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.” My own journey with the festival also was through musicianship. From there, I performed nearly every role at the festival from stage management to costumes to assistant directing, until I now preside as the head of the education department, for which I organize and direct the Youth Ensemble’s full-length production and our other programs,” she said.
She is the Director of Education as well as an associate producer with the festival. She oversees and creates all educational programing for the students, including High School Youth Ensemble, an acting conservatory-style program for 14 to 18 year olds, the Middle School Foundations, a week long mini youth ensemble program for 10 to 13 year olds, and the Youth Designers program, an immersion for young technicians, designers and stage managers and the youth orchestra.
She is also a producer and is a liaise with her co-producers Michael Bradshaw Flynn and Jonathon Stephens.
Julie Dzikowski is Assistant Music director for “Gypsy” and “Into The Woods” and orchestra lead teaching artist.
She is a 2022 graduate of Abington Heights High School. She participated in the honors orchestra, marching/concert band, musical theater program, chamber orchestra ensemble, a Cappella ensemble and jazz ensemble while at Abington Heights.
She is a student at Penn State at University Park as a Music Education Major. She is a member of the Philharmonic Orchestra and president of the Essence of Joy choir. She is also the president of Penn States National Association for Music Education Collegiate and a SSF Youth Ensemble alumni.
She is working with a student youth orchestra which is new to the festival this year. High school students have the opportunity to play music in a pit orchestra alongside professional musicians. There are 13 students who range in age from 14 to 18 and are home schooled or come from Abington Heights, Scranton Prep, North Pocono and Wyoming Seminary.
The students play string instruments including violin, cello and viola. Others play piano/synthesizes, tenor saxophone and trombone. They research twice a week in the month leading up to the performances.
The student musicians fill out an application and submit two recorded performances on their instruments. This is reviewed and then they are invited to an online interview to learn about their experience and musical goals for the season.
“My favorite part about working with the orchestra students is getting a taste of what it will be like to teach in a classroom someday. I love hearing them improve in both musically and confidence as they get more comfortable with the difficult music. For some of them, it is their first ever time to play in a pit orchestra and this experience like no other in the classical field,” said Dzikowski.
“The festival is a community hub for creativity, inclusivity and boundary pushing in in our field. There are very few organizations that care so much about both the artistic integrity of the texts we produce as well as caring as much as we do for the family that is our company, We also try to approach our programs with life skills as well as artistic skills. I love most about the Scranton Shakes Festival is our ability to give opportunities for students to discover who they are as artistic as well as humans,” said Gumula.
The Scranton Shakes Festival is located in the Shakes Space at the Steamtown Mall.
Tickets are free to the public and can be reserved at www.scrantonshakes.com/whatson or by calling the box office at 570-230-7277.
Refreshments will be available for purchase.
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