The Merry Wives of Windsor is a bold comedy that has brought us one of the most legendary characters of stage and screen: Falstaff. The larger-than-life Falstaff was considered to be “Shakespeare's greatest creation” by American film icon Orson Welles. Falstaff appears in three of the Bard’s plays, and is homaged in opera, film, and even the Marvel comic, Thor!
Krista Apple, returning to Del Shakes after performing Beatrice in the fall 2018 community tour of The Merchant of Venice, makes her Del Shakes directorial debut. She said, “What made me fall in love with this play is that it’s radically domestic. The people we are rooting for and cheering on are everyday people. The problems of the play are people having to work out how to live together. They have fun together; they fail together; they love together. They even teach each other.”
Apple is a HotHouse Company Member at the Wilma Theater, a member of the acting faculty at University of the Arts, and a contributor to American Theatre Magazine.
“It is a treat to be back home for the Summer Festival after a year of the broadest and most frequent year-round programming we’ve ever delivered,” said David Stradley, producing artistic director of Delaware Shakespeare. “We’ve opened caskets of gold in Georgetown, mourned Annabel Lee in Dover, delivered sonnets in Smyrna, and we are ready to pry open the world that is our oyster back in Rockwood Park for the Summer Festival.”
As always, the Summer Festival cast will be a mix of familiar faces and top-flight new talent. Returning actors include David Pica (Hamlet, Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing), Claris Park (Much Ado About Nothing), Newton Buchanan (The Merchant of Venice), and Gregory Isaac (The Merchant of Venice). Michael Hahn will once again compose all-original music.
