"Shakespeare-in-the-park coming to Dublin"

From Richard Ades at The Other Paper:
"Those outdoor thespians in Schiller Park will have some competition this summer.
"While Actors’ Theatre is performing under the stars in German Village - as it has for 30 years now - a new troupe called the New Players Theatre Festival will be doing the same up in Dublin. The fledgling company will even perform Shakespeare, Actors’ bread and butter.
"Even so, New Players founders Tim Browning and Mark Mann insist they’re not out to steal Actors’ Theatre’s thunder - or its audience.
"'We’re both going to be running through a good portion of the summer, so there’s no real competition,' said Mann, 52, who has worked with Actors’ many times over the years. 'People can see our shows and see their shows.'
"'I would say if there’s competition, it’s the healthy kind,' said Browning, 45, who played Long John Silver in Actors’ 2010 production of Treasure Island. 'Hopefully, having another good theater in town will push them to do better work, and they’ll certainly push us to do better work.'
"Mann also noted that only one of Actors’ three summer productions will be by the Bard: A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which will open June 30. New Players, meanwhile, will stage repertory versions of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet on alternating weekends between mid-June and mid-July. Performances will be free - with donations requested - and will take place at the outdoor amphitheater in Dublin’s Coffman Park.
"First, though, Browning and Mann are planning two more-modest productions to dip the troupe’s toes into the local theater scene.
"On Monday - Valentine’s Day - Browning will appear with Emily Bach in the romantic tear-jerker Love Letters by A.R. Gurney. It will be presented in conjunction with a fundraising dinner at the south-of-Clintonville eatery Café Bella.
Then, on April 28-30, Browning will direct Mann in Glen Berger’s one-man play Underneath the Lintel at Columbus Dance Theatre.
"The eventual plan, they said, is to present both outdoor and indoor productions during a season that runs roughly from May to September, generally the least-busy part of the theater year."

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