In 2007, the Kennedy Center will be part of a citywide Shakespeare festival, contributing performances including Shakespeare-inspired music, from Mendelssohn's A Midsummer Night's Dream to Smetana's Richard III; such dance versions of the plays as Lar Lubovitch's Othello, performed by American Ballet Theater, and George Balanchine's A Midsummer Night's Dream, performed by New York City Ballet; and the Kirov Opera's production of Verdi's Falstaff.

The Fortas Chamber Music series will include visits by the Guarneri String Quartet, pianist Emmanuel Ax, mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, and the Vermeer String Quartet, as well as performances by artistic director Joseph Kalichstein and his Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio.

Valery Gergiev and the Kirov Opera, returning for the fifth year of a ten-year annual residency, will perform Rossini's Il Viaggio a Reims and Shostakovich 's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk as well as Falstaff.

Dance groups on the schedule include Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Ronald K. Brown/Evidence, the Joffrey Ballet, Matthew Bourne and New Adventures, and Susanne Farrell Ballet.

For information on the Kennedy Center's theater season, visit Playbill.com.