The two productions, both adapted by acclaimed playwright Jeffrey Hatcher, will be presented seven days a week throughout the month of January. The Servant of Two Masters gets underway Jan. 6, 2009, to be followed by The Turn of the Screw, which begins Jan. 12, 2009.
Dan McCleary directs Hatcher and Paolo Emilio Landi's adaptation of The Servant of Two Masters; performances continue through Feb. 1, 2009. Originally penned by Carlo Goldoni, The Servant of Two Masters follows "a group of traveling tragedians [who] arrive to perform The Merchant of Venice, only to find that the audience is expecting The Servant of Two Masters. Parts are quickly assigned and costumes fly as the actors play off audience contributions to create a play about a wise-cracking servant named Truffaldino and how he confuses everyone around him by moonlighting for two employers," press notes state.
The cast includes Shawn Belyea, Deborah Fialkow, Connor Toms, Wesley Rice, Chris Ensweiler, Ben Burris, David Goldstein, Emily Chisholm, Kerry Ryan, Katjana Vadeboncoeur, Stephen Grenley and Robertson Witmer.
Hatcher has also adapted the SSC production of Henry James' Turn of the Screw, which will run through Jan. 31, 2009.
Rita Giomi directs John Bogar and Jennifer Sue Johnson in the 90-minute thriller about "a young governess who begins seeing ghosts while caring for two children on an isolated English estate." Creative duties for The Servant of Two Masters and The Turn of the Screw will be announced shortly.
Jeffrey Hatcher penned the book for the Broadway musical Never Gonna Dance, as well as the plays Three Viewings, A Picasso, Scotland Road, Tuesdays with Morrie, Murder by Poe, Neddy, Work Song: Three Views of Frank Lloyd Wright and Fellow Travelers.
Tickets are available by phoning (206) 733-8222 or by visiting SeattleShakespeareCompany.