The School for Scandal opens at American Shakespeare Center

Richard Brinsley Sheridan’s sharp-witted The School for Scandal joins the already playing Merchant of Venice and Coriolanus in repertory at the American Shakespeare Center on February 2.

Rumors abound in this searing comedy of manners, where no one can avoid the stinging bite of gossip – even though the truth is sometimes juicier. A rich guardian tests his wards to choose the worthier heir, but there’s more to them than meets the eye. Throw in a few scandal-mongers, a wandering wife, and a sneaking hireling named Snake, and A School for Scandal will have you rolling in your seats.

“School for Scandal ranks among the four or five great English Comedies of Manners,” says Ralph Alan Cohen, Co-Founder and Director of Mission at the American Shakespeare Center. “The scenes are delicious and the language is too scintillating to miss a syllable.”

The School for Scandal features the full company of the Actors’ Renaissance Season with Chris Johnston as Charles Surface, Grant Davis as Joseph Surface, and Ginna Hoben as Lady Sneerwell.

The Actors’ Renaissance Season is a unique theatrical venture in which the ASC dives deeper into Shakespeare’s staging conditions (leaving the lights on the audience and including them in the world of the play, a troupe of about a dozen actors, incorporating music before and during the show) by also re-creating some of Shakespeare’s rehearsal conditions: the troupe of actors direct themselves in these first three shows with limited group rehearsals, leading the charge with costume choices, and often with just their cue scripts in hand like scholars believe Shakespeare’s troupe worked.

Performances of School for Scandal begin February 2. Premium level tickets start at $42 and can be purchased online at www.AmericanShakespeareCenter.com or by calling the box office at 1.877.MUCH.ADO. Pay-what-you-will performances are February 2 and 3. Free pre-show lectures are on February 9 and March 23 at 5:30pm.

Residents of Staunton, Waynesboro or Augusta County can take advantage of $18 local rush tickets on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Student, Senior, Military, and AAA discounts are available.

About American Shakespeare Center

The American Shakespeare Center in Staunton recovers the joys and accessibility of Shakespeare’s theatre, language, and humanity by exploring the English Renaissance stage and its practices through performance and education. The ASC Blackfriars Playhouse, the world’s only re-creation of Shakespeare’s indoor theatre, is open year-round for productions of classic plays, which have been hailed by The Washington Post as “shamelessly entertaining” and by The Boston Globe as “phenomenal…bursting with energy.” Founded in 1988 as Shenandoah Shakespeare Express, the organization became the American Shakespeare Center in 2005 and can be found online at www.americanshakespearecenter.com.