Darko Tresnjak returns for his fifth year as the festival's artistic director. Romeo and Juliet, The Merry Wives of Windsor and All's Well That Ends Well will be performed in repertory.

Performances play in the Globe's outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre June 14–Sept. 28.

Old Globe co-artistic director Darko Tresnjak, who helmed the Globe's 2007 productions of Hamlet and Bell, Book and Candle as well as Theater for a New Audience's production of The Merchant of Venice, directs the romantic comedy All's Well That Ends Well (which launches the season June 14). Paul Mullins (Measure for Measure, Macbeth) will return to direct The Merry Wives of Windsor, the comedy featuring portly Sir John Falstaff. Old Globe/University of San Diego Professional Actor Training Program director Richard Seer will direct the tragic love story Romeo and Juliet.

The 2008 Shakespeare Festival cast features four favorite Globe associate artists, including Kandis Chappell (recent productions include The Winter's Tale, The Constant Wife, Collected Stories), Jonathan McMurtry (SD Critics' Circle winner for his performances in the 2007 Shakespeare Festival, Trying, Da), Deborah Taylor (recently seen in Bell, Book and Candle, As You Like It, Antony and Cleopatra) and James Winker (A Midsummer Night's Dream, Da, Neville's Island).

The repertory company also includes Celeste Ciulla, Graham Hamilton, Wynn Harmon, Eric Hoffmann, Charles Janasz, Katie MacNichol, Owiso Odera, Bruce Turk and Heather Wood, as well as the students in The Old Globe/USD Professional Actor Training Program: Ashley Clements, Joy Farmer-Clary, Vivia Font, Kimberly Parker Green, Sloan Grenz, Sam Henderson, Brian Huynh, John Keabler, Michael Kirby, Kern McFadden, Nathaniel McIntyre, Carolyn Ratteray, Tony Von Halle and Barbra Wengard. The Festival creative team includes Ralph Funicello (set designer); Linda Cho (costume designer for All's Well); Anna Oliver (costume designer for Romeo and Juliet); Denitsa D. Bliznakova (costume designer for The Merry Wives of Windsor); York Kennedy (lighting designer); Chris Walker (sound designer); Mary Klinger (stage manager); and Moira Gleason, Tracy Skoczelas and Annette Yes (assistant stage managers).

All's Well That Ends Well opens the Festival, with previews beginning June 14 (opening June 28); Romeo and Juliet begins previews on June 18 (opening July 2); and The Merry Wives of Windsor begins previews on June 21 (opening July 6).

For a complete schedule of the Shakespeare Festival, visit http://www.theoldglobe.org/calendar/index.aspx.

The Globe is continuing "the time-honored tradition of repertory begun by founding director Craig Noel," according to Globe notes. "Shakespeare at the Globe dates back to the institution's artistic roots, when, in its very first year of existence, the Theatre presented 50-minute versions of Shakespeare's plays, performed in repertory. From 1949 to 1984, the Bard's work became an even more integral part of the Globe's programming, with the creation of the annual San Diego National Shakespeare Festival, an ambitious, summer-long event in which at least three Shakespeare works were presented in repertory. Revived in 2004, the Globe Summer Shakespeare Festival has become one of the most celebrated classical festivals in the country."

The three Shakespeare productions will be part of a five-play summer season, which also includes The Pleasure of His Company by Samuel Taylor and Cornelia Otis Skinner, directed by Darko Tresnjak (July 12-Aug. 17) in the Old Globe Theatre, and Donald Margulies' Sight Unseen (Aug. 2-Sept. 7) in the Globe's Arena Stage at the San Diego Museum of Art's Copley Auditorium.

For tickets and more information call the Old Globe box office at (619) 23-GLOBE or visit www.TheOldGlobe.org.