Cal Shakes’ 2010 raffle-ticket sales will end in mid-October. And if you haven’t already bought your tickets by then, that will also be the end of your opportunity to win our amazing Grand Prize: a seven-night stay in Casa Alegría—House of Happiness—in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica.

Casa Alegría is a beautifully appointed, 3,600-square-foot private villa with four bedrooms and four and one-half baths spread over three air-conditioned levels, all overlooking a pristine ocean beach on the edge of the impossibly lush Manuel Antonio National Park. The house features:

What’s more, this Grand Prize includes coach airfare for two to Costa Rica. If that isn’t enough to make you want to purchase 20 raffle tickets, maybe this will put you over the edge: From now through the end of the season, use code word ALEGRĺA and we’ll throw in two free tickets for every 20 you purchase!

Other prizes in this year’s raffle include a set of four subscriptions to Cal Shakes’ 2011 season; and twelve monthly deliveries of Peet’s fine coffee or tea.

Raffle tickets are one for $10, three for $20, and 20 for $100 (or 22 for $100 with the code word!), and all proceeds support Cal Shakes’ programming. So the next time you’re at the Bruns, pick up tickets from a friendly roving raffle-seller; or stop by or call our administrative offices (701 Heinz Ave., Berkeley). To purchase tickets by phone, dial Ian Larue at 510.548.3422 x107.

The raffle drawing will be held in late October; winners will be notified by phone. We can’t wait to call and tell you what you’ve won!

For more information on—and photos of—Casa Alegria, please click here.

Picture your most recent beautiful evening at the Bruns. You sat in the plaza enjoying a glass of wine and a picnic with friends while, backstage, the actors prepared for the performance in brand-new dressing rooms and green room. The grasses on the living roof waved gently in the evening breeze. During intermission, you snagged a hot chocolate from the revamped café and made a visit to the extensive, renovated restrooms.

Did you know that the improvements to our site were made possible by the capital campaign donations of devoted Cal Shakes patrons like you?

Although we’ve raised over $8.25 million to date, we’re still working to meet our $8.5 million fundraising goal before the end of 2010. The $100,000 challenge fund, generously given by our board and other close friends of the Theater, continues to double the impact of all new gifts to the campaign.

Now is the time to make your gift. Pledges can be paid out over as many as three years, and all donors making gifts of $1,000 or more will receive permanent recognition on our site.

We’re getting closer and closer to our goal. Help us cross the finish line by making your gift today.

There are three easy ways to give:

On one evening during the run of each of our productions, we give patrons the opportunity to experience firsthand some of the life of a Cal Shakes actor. Our Behind the Scenes events begin with a wine and hors d’oeuvres reception in the Owen Moscone North Star Grove. A member of the Artistic department then introduces actors from the current production, and patrons are invited to pose questions. This season, patrons have heard Stacy Ross speak of her love for performing the works of George Bernard Shaw, and the challenge of taking on Lady Macbeth; James Carpenter shared anecdotes of actors dealing with the changeable weather at the Bruns.

Once the actors depart to prepare for the evening’s performance, patrons are taken on a backstage tour where they can see the back of the set, the costume and set storage areas, and crew members setting up for the evening. After the tour, patrons return to the North Star Grove for a delicious catered meal.

Patrons frequently tell us that Behind the Scenes is one of the best—and most enjoyable—ways to learn what it’s like to be onstage, and to get access to our performing artists (who truly enjoy talking with attendees about their work).

Our final 2010 Behind the Scenes will take place Thursday, September 30, during the run of Much Ado About Nothing. It will feature actors Domenique Lozano (Beatrice) and Nick Childress (Claudio). The cost is $45 (not including theater ticket). Participants meet at 5:30pm in the Owen Moscone North Star Grove. We hope you’ll join us.

Click here to order tickets.

Domenique Lozano (Beatrice) and Andy Murray (Benedick); photo by Kevin Berne.

California Shakespeare Theater’s 2010 season concludes with Shakespeare’s romantic comedy, Much Ado About Nothing, from September 22 through October 17, directed by Cal Shakes Artistic Director Jonathan Moscone.

One of Shakespeare’s wittiest plays, and a precursor of many of the famous screwball comedies of the 1930s, Much Ado explores the ideas of seeming incompatibility, alleged infidelity, and outright villainy to create a redemptive, passionate tale of love realized by those who thought it had past them by and those who took it for granted until it was nearly gone. Moscone will set the production in a post-war period during the early part of the 19th century, with a distinctly Italian flair.

“As in all of Shakespeare’s great romantic comedies, there is at the play’s heart a beautiful vulnerability that deeply appeals to me,” says Moscone. “This is the last chance at love for two people who’ve been thwarted by their feelings, and a chance of burgeoning love for two young people who find that only through suffering can a real emotional bond be created. I love this play and hope it’s a perfect way to express the expansive imagination of Shakespeare, who gave us such stark contrast in feeling and tone with Macbeth, which played earlier this season on our stage.”

Danny Scheie as Dogberry; photo by Kevin Berne.

The cast of Much Ado features some of Cal Shakes’ most beloved Associate Artists: Andy Murray and Domenique Lozano as Benedick and Beatrice, Danny Scheie as Don John/Dogberry, Dan Hiatt as Leonato/George Seacole, and Catherine Castellanos as Ursula/Verges. Also appearing, fresh from the cast of Macbeth, are Nick Childress as Claudio; Delia MacDougall as Margaret; and Nicholas Pelczar as Don Pedro. Emily Kitchens, who played Molly Morgan in the season opening Pastures of Heaven, appears as Hero, and Andrew Hurteau, last seen at Cal Shakes in King Lear, plays the Friar. Michael Davison, Thomas Gorrebeeck, Xanadu Bruggers, Luisa Frasconi, John Lewis, and Justin Liszanckie round out the company.

The design team from Macbeth returns to reimagine the Bruns stage once again, removing all vestiges of the Scottish play’s bombed-out asylum and burnishing and refitting the superstructure to create Much Ado’s robustly romantic seaport town of Messina. 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 Erika Chong Shuch (choreographer), Cal Shakes Associate Artist Nancy Carlin (vocal/text coach), Philippa Kelly (dramaturg), Elizabeth Atkinson (stage manager), and Briana J. Fahey (assistant stage manager).

Single tickets for Much Ado About Nothing 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 calshakes.org/tickets or call 510.548.9666 to purchase.