Teller's The Tempest Set for Chicago Shakespeare Theater Season

Chicago Shakespeare Theater has announced it's 2015-16 season.

This summer, the season begins with Rachel Rockwell's production of Disney's The Little Mermaid. Newly adapted to a 75-minute running time, the musical by Alan Menken, Howard Ashman, Glenn Slater, and Doug Wright runs from July-August in the Courtyard Theater. Rockwell serves as choreographer, with Robert Duchak as musical director. Also in July and August, Chicago Shakespeare in the Parks will present Shakespeare's Greatest Hits, adapted and directed by Geoff Button, for free in several parks across the city.

September-November will feature Shakespeare's The Tempest, directed by Aaron Posner and Teller, of Penn and Teller, with songs by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan, and choreography by Matt Kent of Pilobolus. Ride the Cyclone, a new musical by Jacob Richmond and Brooke Maxwell about a group of choir kids whose lives are cut short in a freak accident on a roller coaster, will run during the same period under Rockwell's direction.

David Ives' The Heir Apparent, directed by John Rando, will round out 2015 before Jonathan Munby's production of Shakespeare's Othello, starring Dion Johnstone, runs February-April 2016.

May-October 2016 will see a new Shakespeare History Cycle, Tug of War: Foreign Fire, comprising King Edward III, Henry V, and Henry VI, Part 1, and Tug of War: Civil Strife, comprising Henry VI, Parts 2 and 3 and Richard III, adapted and directed by Barbara Gaines. The first half will be presented May-June; the second, September-October.

Closing the season is Madsummer, a hip-hop riff on A Midsummer Night's Dream, created and directed by GQ and JQ, developed with Rick Boynton.

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