The Marietta Summer Theatre Festival opens Thursday, June 21, featuring a dozen summer stock actors from Wisconsin to New York leading productions of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and the Broadway musical Guys and Dolls.

The theatre festival opens with Twelfth Night in Muskingum Park on June 21 at 8:30 p.m.

The play follows a pair of shipwrecked twins who set into motion a tale of mistaken identity and unlikely love. Separated from her brother Sebastian and fearing him lost at sea, the quick-thinking Viola adopts a male disguise and enters the service of the handsome Duke Orsino—only to find herself at the center of an explosive love triangle in which identity, passion and gender all threaten to come undone. Bursting with vitality and romance, Twelfth Night has long been one of Shakespeare’s most popular comedies, featuring one of the Bard’s most remarkable heroines matching wits with a host of captivating characters—from the love-struck Olivia to the puritanical Malvolio.

This free Shakespeare by the River production of Twelfth Night runs June 21 through June 24, June 30 and July 1, beginning at 8:30 p.m. each evening.

Beginning on June 29, at Peoples Bank Theatre, The Marietta Summer Theatre Festival presents Guys and Dolls, the classic Frank Loesser musical comedy about two couples who roll the dice on romance. New York’s most infamous crap game organizer, Nathan Detroit, hoping for a big pay day, challenges notorious gambler Sky Masterson to a bet he’s sure he’ll win: take mission girl Sarah Brown to dinner in Havana, Cuba. Sky accepts and pursues her, seemingly hopelessly, while Nathan deals with his own situation – his 14-year fiancée, Adelaide, who’s tired of waiting for a wedding. When bets and love seem at odds, the characters are called to question their priorities to make things right.

Dates for Guys and Dolls are June 29 at 8:00 p.m., June 30 at 2:30 p.m., July 1 at 2:30 p.m., July 6 at 8:00 p.m., July 7 at 8:00 p.m., and July 8 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $20-$30. Discounted $10 tickets for Washington and Wood county seniors are available for the July 1 matinee, made possible by the Marie Ausenheimer Senior Arts Fund through the Parkersburg Area Community Foundation.

The Marietta Summer Theatre Festival is a co-production of the Hippodrome/Colony Historical Theatre Association and the Marietta College Theatre Department. As one of the original programs of the Hippodrome/Colony Historical Theatre Association, the Marietta Summer Theatre Festival began to take root six years prior to the 2016 opening of Peoples Bank Theatre. In these early years, productions took place at The Adelphia Music Hall, Mid Ohio Valley Players Theatre, and Marietta College. The 2014 production of Love’s Labour’s Lost in Muskingum Park marked what would become the first season of the Marietta Summer Theatre Festival. With the opening of Peoples Bank Theatre, Shakespeare by the River productions have been paired with Broadway musicals on the theatre stage. The vision from the start has been to produce professional theatre for the Marietta community. The Marietta Summer Theatre Festival provides a rare opportunity to use the historic Peoples Bank Theatre theatre as it was originally intended — a space to present musical, classical, and new theatre, to a Marietta audience.

Full event details and ticket information for these events and more are available online at peoplesbanktheatre.com or by calling the box office at 740-371-5152. Walk-up hours at the box office are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondaythrough Friday and two hours prior to performances.
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