With its consistently high-caliber Actors’ Equity performers, superb sightlines and not-entirely-safe selection of plays, Shadowland Stages in Ellenville is a great place to put on your summer theater list.
Amazingly, this little vaudeville house will host the American premiere of Bang Bang! a new English version of Georges Feydeau’s classic 1892 farce Monsieur chasse! Here’s the kicker: The adaptation was done by John Cleese. Yes, that John Cleese.
But that’s not until August. The 2018 Shadowland Stages season kicks off with something much more serious: an intense drama about a pair of mountaineers stuck on the face of K2, the world’s second-highest mountain. Dealing with a serious injury and trapped on an icy ledge at 27,000 feet, the two climbers confront the fine line between life and death. The New Yorker called the play “unexpectedly thrilling from start to finish.”
Authored by Patrick Meyers and directed by Brendan Burke, K2 officially opens this Saturday, June 2 (with a pre-party sponsored by Middletown’s Equilibrium Brewery) and runs through June 17. Curtain time is 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays ($39) and 2 p.m. on Sundays ($34). Tickets for the previews at 8 p.m. on Friday, June 1 and 2 p.m. on Saturday, June 2 are discounted at $31; and watching cast and crew work the final bugs out of a new production can be even more fun than the high-polish version, if you’re fascinated by the theatrical creation process.
Shadowland’s summer and autumn fare continues as follows: Elemeno Pea by Molly Smith Metzler, directed by Brendan Burke, June 22 to July 8; Honky Tonk Laundry by Roger Bean, directed by Michael LaFleur with musical arrangements by Jon Newton, July 13 to August 5; Bang Bang! by John Cleese, directed by James Glossman, August 10 to September 9; The Mystery of Love and Sex by Bathsheba Doran, directed by Melisa Annis, September 14 to 30; and Papermaker by Monica Wood (Hudson Valley premiere), directed by Brendan Burke, October 5 to 21.
For tickets and more information, call (845) 647-5511 or visit https://shadowlandstages.org. Shadowland Stages is located at 157 Canal Street in Ellenville.
Join the family! 
