ASU-Beebe Theater Department to present Merry Wives of Windsor

BEEBE — The Arkansas State University-Beebe Theater Department will celebrate the 47th annual Arkansas Shakespeare Festival Nov. 1820 at the Owen Center Theater.

The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 18-20, The production will also include two morning matinees for high schools. Appropriate for all ages, with a suggested minimum age of 13, The Merry Wives of Windsor is under the direction of Don J. Eller.

In the play, Si r John Falstaff, a knight down on both luck and cash, hatches a scheme to raise funds. He will seduce Mistress Ford and Mistress Page in an attempt to get at their husbands’ money. Falstaff, however, has overestimated his ingenuity — the two women compare their letters and, finding them identical, hatch a plan of their own to make a buffoon of the knight.

The Arkansas Shakespeare Festival, founded on the ASU-Beebe campus in 1966, is one of the oldest continuous educational Shakespeare festivals in America. Over the years, it has presented more than 300 performances, mounting 47 productions of Shakespeare’s plays.

ASU-Beebe offers an Associate of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis in a fine arts field of study. This degree is a comprehensive, two-year-based curriculum designed specifically for transfer toward a bachelor’s degree in fine arts.

Seating for the concert is unreserved and on a firstcome basis. The theater will open 30 minutes prior to curtain call. Tickets will be on sale one hour before showtime at the door. Ticket prices are $10 for general admission and $5 for seniors, students, military personnel and educators.

The Owen Center Theater is at 910 Pecan St. in Beebe. For tickets or concert series information, call (501) 8828925 or visit www.asub.edu.