Here’s a safe bet: At some point in your life, you’ve been smack in the midst of something when the phone starts ringing, causing you to think, “Shoot. Let it go to voicemail.” (Or alternate words to that effect.)

Cal Shakes’ Patron Service Associates (or PSAs, as they are affectionately known) can relate. These invaluable members of Cal Shakes’ fundraising team are all locals, many of whom—like many of you—love the arts; support nonprofits; and receive lots of donation-request calls. In other words, PSAs understand firsthand that calls may come as interruptions. They also know that some causes are worth taking time to talk about.

Cal Shakes PSAs have lots to offer you. They’re not calling solely to request donations (although that is an important part of what they do; the monies they raise are essential to funding Cal Shakes’ work onstage and in schools and communities). The PSAs are fonts of information, and serve as an essential link between patrons and the entire staff of Cal Shakes. Got a question about your tickets, a particular show, or something you read regarding Cal Shakes? Answer a PSA call and you’ll have an expert at your complete disposal. Had a Cal Shakes experience—good or bad—you’d like us to hear about? Sharing it with a PSA is an ideal way to communicate it to our entire company.

On top of all this, from now until the end of our Main Stage season on October 17, Cal Shakes PSAs are your gateway to heavenly—and free—Peet’s coffee and tea. When a PSA calls, if you answer the phone and offer the codeword “PEET’S,” you’ll be entered into a weekly drawing for a $20 Peet’s Card. Winners will be contacted by phone or email (your choice).

So don’t miss out on any of the many benefits of talking with a Cal Shakes PSA. When your phone rings, answer with a hearty hello and a happy cry: “Peet’s!”

Wanting one more look at John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven? In August, Octavio Solis’ play will be featured at the National Steinbeck Center in Salinas as part of the 30th Annual Steinbeck Festival. On Saturday, August 7 at 7:30pm and Sunday, August 8 at 2:30pm, members of the original cast will read selections from the play, and participate in a talkback with the audience.

Each year, hundreds of people from around the globe attend the four-day festival in Salinas, which includes talks, tours, film, and the visual and performing arts. This year, the Festival will explore journeys of all kinds, throughout America and the wide world, through the eyes of John Steinbeck and others. Appearing in the Salinas readings are original cast members from Cal Shakes’ world-premiere production of John Steinbeck’s The Pastures of Heaven: Catherine Castellanos (Cleo Banks, Rosa Lopez, Cal Shakes Associate Artist), Rod Gnapp (Pat Humbert, Shark Wicks), Dan Hiatt (John Whiteside, Jakob Stutz, Cal Shakes Associate Artist), Amy Kossow (Miss Martin, Ma Humbert, Word for Word Performing Arts Company member), Charles Shaw Robinson (Bert Munroe, Junius Maltby), Tobie Windham (Tularecito, Manny Munroe), and JoAnne Winter (Maria Lopez, Robbie Maltby, Word for Word Artistic Director).

Tickets to the readings are $10 for member of the National Steinbeck Center, $18 for non-members.
For more information on the Steinbeck Festival, including how to purchase tickets, click here.

The pre-show LBGT party in the Owen Moscone North Star Grove features cocktails, snacks, music, and more inspired by our upcoming production of George Bernard Shaw’s Mrs. Warren’s Profession, directed by Timothy Near. And it’s all free with your ticket to the performance. We’ll be serving up a special drink, made with vodka from our friends at Stockholm Krystal, named by one of our Twitter followers or Facebook fans. (Want to participate? Follow us on Twitter or be our fan on Facebook to take part in the Mrs. Warren’s OUTdoors Cocktail Contest, ending this Thursday.)

Don’t have your ticket to the show yet? If you’re age 30 and Under, they’re just $20.

Just pop into the first grove on the right between 6:30 and curtain time to join the party. OUTdoors—including drinks and snacks—is free with your ticket to the performance.

Our Five-Week Summer Shakespeare Conservatory is currently in session, with students age 8–18 spending their mornings studying text, improvisation, stage combat, and a wide variety of other theatrical disciplines. Afternoons are spent in rehearsal for two days of performance July 23 and 24. These are no ordinary school plays—each is a discrete, abridged Shakespeare production, directed by Bay Area theater professionals—so you don’t have to be a parent of one of our gifted Conservatory students to attend! The schedule is below; tickets are $7 each, or $5 for students and seniors. Click here

CONSERVATORY PERFORMANCES
Location: Bentley Upper School,
1000 Upper Happy Valley Rd, Lafayette
Tickets: $7 each, or $5 for students and seniors.
Click here to purchase.

Schedule:
Friday, July 23
Merry Kinsman (grades 3–6) in Much Ado About Nothing 10-11am
Noble Knaves (grades 6-7) in The Winter’s Tale 11:30am-12:30pm
1-2pm
Riotous Knights (grade 8) in Comedy of Errors 2:30-3:30pm
6-7:30pm
Fortune Artists (grades 8-10) in Henry IV- part one
The Queen’s Own (grades 10-12) in Measure for Measure

Saturday, July 24
Riotous Knights (grade 8) in A Comedy of Errors 10-11am
Merry Kinsman (grades 3-6) in Much Ado About Nothing 11:30am-12:30pm
Noble Knaves (grades 6-7) in The Winter’s Tale 1-2pm
Fortune Artists (grades 8-10) in Henry IV- part 1 2:30-3:30pm
The Queen’s Own (grades 10-12) in Measure for Measure 5-6:30pm

California Shakespeare Theater’s 2010 season continues with Shakespeare’s gripping tale of the consequences of unbridled ambition, Macbeth, August 18–September 12.

Returning to direct is Joel Sass, associate artistic director of The Jungle Theater in Minneapolis, whose 2008 production of Pericles was called “pitch-perfect” by the San Francisco Chronicle. As he did with Pericles, Sass has reimagined Macbeth for a company of eight speaking actors and four ensemble members who will each portray several characters throughout the production. According to Sass, the production will be “contemporary, incorporating strong elements of a gritty ‘reality’ but primarily evoking a world and behavior that is more dreamlike, interior, psychological…I’m after a sort of David Lynch-y quality I’d characterize as feverish, ominous, and slightly ritualized.”

“Pericles was a relatively unknown play, and so had the capacity to surprise an audience with a story they didn’t know,” continues Sass. “Macbeth, conversely, is one of the most well-known plays of Shakespeare—but my hope is that our production will still be packed with surprises and feel fresh, new, and immediate. Adapting it for a cast of eight is both challenging and really exciting, because the experience of the story becomes very concentrated, very intimate. Macbeth is one of Shakespeare’s most intense, harrowing journeys—he takes the audience on a dark ride into the most private ecstasies and agonies of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. My hope is that we’ll create a surprising, psychological thriller/horror show, and not a history pageant/morality play.”

Written in the early 1600s and first performed for King James I, son of Mary, Queen of Scots, Macbeth is loosely based on several stories in Holinshed’s Chronicles, a popular history of the British Isles familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries. The shortest of Shakespeare’s tragedies, it has been the subject of numerous artistic treatments, including an opera by Verdi; an all-African-American stage production produced by the Depression-era Works Progress Administration (WPA) and directed by Orson Welles; the Akiro Kurosawa film, Throne of Blood; and a 2010 interactive graphic novel with voiceovers by Derek Jacobi, among others. In addition, the story of Macbeth has been told in a one-man show, MacHomer, now on its 15th anniversary tour, which uses the voices of the popular Simpsons cartoon characters; Cal Shakes has announced that it will present MacHomer for seven performances only Aug 3-7.

Appearing as Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, “the ultimate power couple” according to Sass, are Jud Williford, last seen at Cal Shakes in 2009 in his critically-acclaimed portrayals of Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet and Victor in Private Lives, and Stacy Ross, who is currently playing the title role of Mrs. Warren’s Profession. The cast also includes Cal Shakes Associate Artist James Carpenter (Duncan/Porter/Seyton/Murderer/Ensemble), recently selected as a 2010 Lunt-Fontanne Fellow; Delia MacDougall (Ross/Wyrd Sister/ Ensemble), last seen at A.C.T. in Round and Round the Garden and Cal Shakes’ Pericles; Craig Marker (Macduff/Murderer/Ensemble), best remembered for his portrayal of Tybalt in 2009’s Romeo and Juliet; Nicholas Pelczar (Banquo/Lennox/Ensemble), who appeared in A.C.T.’s Rock and Roll and War Music; and A.C.T. MFA students Nick Childress (Malcolm/Ensemble) and Omoze Idehenre (Lady Macduff/Wyrd Sister/Mentieth/Ensemble). Rounding out the ensemble are Marissa Keltie, Samantha Martin, Brian J. Patterson, and Noah Baldwin.

The talented design team for Macbeth includes: Dan Ostling (set design), an ensemble member with Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago whose work has appeared at regional theaters across the country and in Europe; Christal Weatherly (costume design), a much-in-demand designer with credits from Los Angeles to New York, most recently for Ruined at Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Russell Champa (lighting design), who designed the recent Broadway production of In the Next Room (or the vibrator play); and Andre Pluess (sound design), who created the evocative, occasionally whimsical music for last season’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Others on the artistic staff of the production are Dave Maier (fight director), Lynne Soffer (vocal/text coach), Philippa Kelly (dramaturg), Briana J. Fahey (stage manager), and Elizabeth Atkinson (assistant stage manager).

Single tickets for Macbeth are on sale now and range from $34–$70, with discounts available for seniors, students, persons age 30 and under, and groups. Prices, dates, and artists subject to change. Click http://www.calshakes.org/tickets or call 510.548.9666 to purchase.