March 2, 2012

Iowa City, IA –Don’t miss the fun and excitement of Walking the Wire, Riverside Theatre’s annual festival of original monologues, which will bring to the stage a wide variety of crazy situations as part of this year’s theme, This Will Never Work.

Walking the Wire: This Will Never Work opens Friday, March 2 and runs through Sunday, March 11, for 7 performances only. The show is directed by Jody Hovland and sponsored by Integrated DNA Technologies.

With over 100 submissions from across the U.S. and beyond, the dozen monologues in the show reflect a diverse range of original work.

The 12 playwrights whose work will be presented are: Brent Boyd (North Hollywood, CA); Dave Carley (Toronto, ON); Ron Clark (Iowa City); Mark Harvey Levine (Pasadena, CA); Deborah Magid (Cleveland Heights, OH); Gordon Mennenga (Iowa City); Mike Moran (Mount Vernon); Amanda Petefish-Schrag (Maryville, MO); Gwendolyn Rice (Madison, WI); Janet Schlapkohl (Iowa City); Jen Silverman (Astoria, NY); and Amy White (Mount Vernon).

Three area writers, Clark, Moran and Schlapkohl, will perform their own work, with an additional cast of local actors including Tim Budd, David Busch, Fannie Hungerford, Katherine Smith, and Jessica Wilson.

Performances are Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Tickets are $28 for adults, $25 for 60 and over/30 and under, $15 for youth (18 and under).

Tickets can be purchased online at www.riversidetheatre.org or by phone at (319) 338-7672. The Riverside Theatre Box Office is located at 213 N Gilbert St, Iowa City. Box office hours are: 12 – 4 p.m. Monday – Friday and 1 hour before performances.

Iowa City, IA – Riverside Theatre will host the first in a series of special events related to its upcoming summer Festival production of The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare, on Thursday, March 1 at 7 p.m. The lecture and presentation by Shakespearean scholar and UI English professor Miriam Gilbert, titled “Shakespeare and ‘the likeness of a Jew’ Shylock, Fagin and Disraeli” will take place at the Iowa City Public Library, 123 South Linn St, in Meeting Room A. The event is free and open to the public.

Shylock is one of Shakespeare's most famous—and most controversial—characters.  During this presentation Gilbert will ask, is he a knife-wielding villain or a misunderstood victim?  The talk will also examine how our view of Shylock has been influenced by figures from literature, from history, and from his various stage representations.

Riverside Theatre is receiving support from the National Endowment for the Arts for The Merchant of Venice and accompanying audience education and outreach efforts related to the theme of “the other” in the play.

Events featuring experts, scholars, community and religious leaders, aimed at confronting and countering notions of anti-Semitism, as well as additional types of other-focused hatred and prejudices will be presented this spring. Watch the Riverside Theatre website, www.riversidetheatre.org for more information.

In addition to The Merchant of Venice, this summer’s Festival will include a production of Shakespeare’s As You Like It. The plays will run in rotation from June 15 through July 8, 2012. The Merchant of Venice and As You Like It will be performed at the Riverside Festival Stage in Lower City Park. This outdoor venue is loosely based on Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre and contains 472 permanent seats. Tickets for the Festival will go on sale in late spring. For more information go to www.riversidetheatre.org or call the Riverside Theatre Box Office at 319-338-7672.