Veteran Actors to Direct The Two Gentlemen of Verona

Two founding actors with the Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival will make their directorial debut on Friday with the production of The Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Marc Silver and Derek Medina have spent many summers on the Kingsmen Park stage at California Lutheran University. Silver has acted in every show but one and last year starred as Iago in Othello.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a revival of one of Kingsmen Shakespeare Company’s most popular productions. It’s a rollicking story about two friends, Valentine and Proteus, seeking fortune and love in the early 1900s. It features two of Shakespeare’s greatest clown characters, Launce and Speed, and many amusing supporting characters.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona opens on Friday, June 29, and continues June 30, July 1, 6, 7, 8, 13, 14 and 15.

Admission is $10 for adults and free for those under 18. Lawn box seating is available for $65 or $50. For ticket and lawn box purchase information, call (805) 493-3455 or check the Web site at www.kingsmenshakespeare.org. The CLU campus is located at 60 W. Olsen Road in Thousand Oaks. Alcohol is prohibited on campus.

Since 1997, the Kingsmen Shakespeare Company has brought Shakespearean plays to the community during the Kingsmen Shakespeare Festival in California Lutheran University’s Kingsmen Park. The professional nonprofit theater organization also coordinates apprentice programs for professional and aspiring Shakespearean actors, sponsors Theatre in Education programs in local schools and organizes summer theater camps for youth.