New show and Director for Shakespeare Festival

We are thrilled to announce that the production for Stafford Festival Shakespeare 2016 will be Othello.

“We are very excited to be producing one of the Bard’s darkest tragedies and this is also the first time Othello will have been produced for Stafford Festival Shakespeare” commented Producer Derrick Gask.

We are also excited to announce a new Director for the show, Clare Prenton.

Clare Prenton has over 16 years experience as a director in theatre, musical theatre and opera. Originally from Liverpool and a member of the Everyman and Playhouse youth theatres, she studied at the Universities of Leeds (BA Hons English Language and Literature) and Hull (MA in Theatre Production) before training at the Royal National Theatre Young Directors Course in 2000. Staff Directing posts followed at English Touring Opera, Opera Holland Park and Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre/The New Shakespeare Company, the British Shakespeare Company’s productions of Twelfth Night starring Norman Pace and Wayne Sleep and Much Ado About Nothing starring Norman Pace, English National Opera Studio/Tete a Tete. Since 2008 Clare has been an Associate & Understudy Director for Sir Alan Ayckbourn and the Stephen Joseph Theatre Company on UK tours of Communicating Doors, Life of Riley, Life and Beth (with Liza Goddard), A Trip to Scarborough and Roundelay.



Clare Prenton

Her Directing credits include: Legally Blonde - The Musical (Kings Theatre, Glasgow), Improbable Fiction (Pitlochry Festival Theatre), A Different Way Home (Cumbernauld Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (British Shakespeare Company), How the Other Half Loves and Relatively Speaking, The Kingfisher (Sheringham Little Theatre, Norfolk), The Smoking Gun: Cover Her Feet and Fly in the Ointment for the Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough and a rural tour of North Yorkshire. Two by Jim Cartwright and Noel and Gertie by Sheriden Morley (Eye Theatre, Suffolk), a revival of Manon (English Touring Opera), Vaclav Havel’s Private View Regents Park Open Air Theatre, Orton’s The Erpingham Camp and Ruffian on the Stair (Greenwich Playhouse) and revival of Victorian drama Did You Ever Send Your Wife to Camberwell? (Battersea Arts Centre). Cambridge Shakespeare Festival (Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew). Further afield, Clare has directed for The English Speaking Theatre of Poland and White Horse Theatre of Germany. Clare won a director’s award whilst at Hull University at the National Student Drama Festival for The Bald Prima Donna with Sam Troughton as Mr Martin.

As writer/director : Clare was an Associate of C Theatre writing for the sell-out Edinburgh
Festival Fringe Show Shakespeare For Breakfast for three years with Romeo and Juliet – The Panto! ; Macbeth - the Panto! And the spoof musical The Lost Musicals of William Shakespeare as well as children’s musical play Santa’s Summer.

“We’re thrilled to be working with Clare alongside a new creative team. We are moving Stafford Festival Shakespeare in a new direction whilst maintaining many elements of our productions we are known for; Othello will still be accessible, affordable entertainment and we cannot wait to get started” concluded Gask.

Othello will open on Thursday 23rd June and run until Saturday 9th July 2016 at Stafford Castle.

Othello is a highly respected military general, a newly-wed and an outsider. His greatest triumphs in turn create his greatest enemies. When cruel Iago seeks revenge after being bypassed for a promotion, he torments and plays with Othello’s mind. In turn, Othello discovers the real enemy is his own jealousy, paranoia and ego, as he tragically destroys his world and everything he loves.

With a brand new creative team and a tragedy never staged before at Stafford Castle, Othello promises to be Stafford Festival Shakespeare’s boldest production yet.

Tickets will be available from Thursday 5th November at 9.30am. Early Bird Tickets are available until January 31st 2016.

The early bird offer saves £5 per ticket* on peak performances (Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings) and it saves £3 per ticket* on Tuesday and Wednesday performances.

The early bird discount is not valid on Mondays, Saturday matinees and school performances and cannot be redeemed against any other offer.

After the early bird discount ends tickets will be available from £13 - £25*

*Plus a 50p per ticket booking fee