What's onstage at Shakespeare theaters in February

Clay Vanderbeek (Rosencrantz), Nate Ruleaux (Guildenstern) in “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead,” Annapolis Shakespeare Company. Photo: Joshua McKerrow.

Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is onstage through February 24 at Annapolis Shakespeare Company, directed by Tony Award-nominee Donald Hicken . As Hicken recently told the Capital Gazette, this isn’t his first experience with the play: it was his first professional production as an actor, in which he met the woman who would later become his wife. As a director, Hicken has had more time to marvel at how skillfully Stoppard crafts the play’s protagonists:

It’s really fascinating to me the ways Stoppard has made Rosencrantz and Guildenstern distinct but also hard to tell apart. That’s one of the running jokes in the play, that nobody can tell them apart. They’re not even sure who is who. Given that humorous conceit, it’s been fascinating for me to see how skillfully Stoppard constructed and differentiated these characters.

The Atlanta Shakespeare Company’s Romeo and Juliet is onstage through February 24.

Baltimore Shakespeare Factory’s Cymbeline runs through March 10.

Seamus Miller as Prince Hal with Gregory Burgess as Sir John Falstaff in “Henry IV, Part 1,” Chesapeake Shakespeare Company. Photo by Brandon W. Vernon.

At Baltimore’s Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Henry IV, Part 1 opens February 15, hotly followed by Henry IV, Part 2, which opens March 15. In his director’s notes, Ian Gallanar points out just how innovative Shakespeare’s narratives are:

[Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2] are revolutionary plays in how the playwright constructs plots and sub-plots. The construction of the story feels very contemporary. I hope you’ll notice how Shakespeare tells the stories of the death of Henry IV, of Falstaff and Hal’s friendship, and the rebellions that affect all of the characters in the two plays. Shakespeare weaves these stories together in ways that are hardly noticeable to a contemporary audience because we’ve grown so accustomed to this dramatic structure. But, as with so many things, Shakespeare was an innovator. We’ve been following his example of storytelling ever since.

At Chicago Shakespeare Theater, catch a 75-minute abridged version of Macbeth. “I think often people treat this play as though it’s a horror film,” says director Marti Lyons. “Actually, it’s a psychological thriller. We start out with someone who I think actually does have a moral code, who does have a set of principles. Then, over the course of the play, in trying to reconcile his own actions with who he thinks he is, he goes mad.”

Part of Chicago’s Short Shakespeare! series, Macbeth will be performed for more than 30,000 students during weekday Team Shakespeare matinees, with public performances on Saturdays, making Shakespeare accessible for audiences of all ages. Stick around after the show to chat with the actors.

Arizona’s Southwest Shakespeare Company explores love in all its many forms in a repertory of As You Like It and The Taming of the Shrew at the Mesa Arts Center, February 22 through March 9. Real-life married-couple/co-artistic directors Betsy and Quinn Matfield star in The Taming of the Shrew as Kate and Petruchio. Quinn pulls double-duty and directs As You Like It.

Annapolis Shakespeare Company, Atlanta Shakespeare Company, Baltimore Shakespeare Factory, Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, and Southwest Shakespeare Company are theater partners of the Folger Shakespeare Library.