Chautauqua, NY – Chautauqua Theater Company (CTC), under the leadership of Artistic Director Andrew Borba and Managing Director Sarah Clare Corporandy, will close its 34th season with William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, directed by Dawn Monique Williams. Romeo and Juliet will run August 11-18 at Bratton Theater.

In Romeo and Juliet, perhaps the most famous ever written, love is romantic, overpowering, passionate, violent, and ultimately redemptive. The hot summer days of Verona create a pressure cooker for young lovers caught between feuding families and swept away by the powerful nature of love.

The CTC cast includes guest artists Nafeesa Monroe, Manu Narayan (Bombay Dreams), and Keith Randolph Smith (Jitney, Fences), as well as the 2017 Acting Conservatory: Siddiq Saunderson, Adrianna Mitchell, Jules Latimer, Lavour Addison, Jennifer Apple, Micah Peoples, Will Harrison, Emily Daly, Yonatan Gebeyehu, Patrick Foley, Maggie Mason, Kelsey Jenison, Isabel Pask, and Moses Ingram.

The creative team includes Andrea Bechert (Scenic Design), Courtney Flores (Costume Design), Masha Tsmiring (Lighting Design), Elisheba Ittoop (Sound Design).

Dawn Monique Williams (Director): Regional credits include Merry Wives of Windsor (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Associate/Assistant Director on Richard II, Pericles, Antony and Cleopatra, The Unfortunates, Cymbeline (OSF). Other selected regional credits include: By the Way Meet Vera Stark, Civil War Christmas, The Piano Lesson, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, La Ronde, Antigone Project, Othello, Twelfth Night, Medea, Children of Eden, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Little Shop of Horrors. International: Scapin the Cheat (Edinburgh Festival Fringe); Anna Bella Eema,and The Tempest. Awards: 2016 Princess Grace Foundation Theatre Fellowship, Theatre Communications Group Leadership U Grant, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 2013 Phil Killian Directing Fellow at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Drama League Directors Project 2011 Fall Directing Fellow. MFA:Directing, MA: Dramatic Literature. www.dawnmoniquewilliams.com

TICKETS to Romeo and Juliet  are $35 and seating is reserved. Tickets can be purchased online at http://chq.org/theater-shows-tickets or by calling (716) 357-6250. Single event ticket is required, which also serves as a Chautauqua Institution gate pass 4 hours before and 4 hours following the start time of the performance.

Chautauqua Theater Company’s 2017 Season includes Noises Off: 6/30-7/16, Detroit 67: 7/21- 7/30, Romeo and Juliet:  8/11-8/18, and the 2017 New Play Workshops, Birthday Candles: 8/1-8/4 and Building the Wall: 8/2-8/5.