(Long Island, NY) The Bay Street Shakespeare Initiative and Hamptons Shakespeare Festival are proud to announce that Piper Perabo will star as Viola in their upcoming co-production of outdoor staged readings of TWELFTH NIGHT, OR WHAT YOU WILL by William Shakespeare on August 14 and 15 at Mashashimuet Park in Sag Harbor, NY. The two readings are free to the public and will start at7 pm. A VIP Benefit performance will take place on August 16 at a private, oceanfront estate. Contact Kim Fink, Bay Street’s Director of Development, at 631-725-0818 Ext. 112 for tickets to the VIP Benefit. Sponsored also in part by Mashashimuet Park.
Piper Perabo. Photo Credit: Bay Street Theater.
TWELFTH NIGHT, OR WHAT YOU WILL is Shakespeare’s hilarious romantic comedy, filled with unrequited love, disguise, and cross dressing. The readings will be presented without intermission and will run under two hours. They will feature direction by Bay Street’s Artistic Director, Scott Schwartz, and original music and sound design by Hamptons Shakespeare Festival’s Artistic Director, David M. Brandenburg.
Golden Globe nominated Piper Perabo recently wrapped up a five season run on the hit series Covert Affairs, USA Network’s spy drama.Covert Affairs was produced by The Bourne Identity’s Doug Liman and is an action packed show filled with drama and sex appeal.
Piper Perabo is one of the most talented and versatile actresses working today. In May 2009, she made her stage debut in Neil Labute’s controversial play Reasons to be Pretty directed by Terry Kinney. She co-stared alongside Alison Pill, Thomas Sadoski and Pablo Schreiber.
Piper Perabo. Photo Credit: Bay Street Theater.
In 2007, she was seen in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige with Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale, in Because I Said So with Diane Keaton and Lauren Graham and First Snow, a film directed by Mark Fergus, costarring Guy Pearce and Adam Scott.
Next, Perabo was seen in John Glenn’s disturbing thriller The Heaven Project with Paul Walker and Disney’s Beverly Hills Chihuahua alongside Jaime Lee Curtis. Perabo was also seen in Paramount Vantage’s Carriers in New Mexico. She played the female lead opposite Chris Pine and Lou Taylor Pucci in the post-apocalyptic thriller about four friends trying to escape a viral pandemic.
Some of her more recent films include Looper alongside Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon Levitt, Emily Blunt and Jeff Daniels, Adam Shankman’s Cheaper by the Dozen 2 in which she reprised her role as the eldest daughter to Steve Martin and Bonnie Hunt, the romantic comedy Imagine Me & You with Lena Heady and Matthew Goode, and the crime drama 10th & Wolf with an ensemble cast that included James Marsden and Dennis Hopper. Her feature film debut was in the comedy White Boyz, written by Danny Hoch. She also starred in Coyote Ugly.
Bay Street Theater’s 2014 performance of THE TEMPEST. Photo Credit: Bay Street Theater.
In addition to acting, Piper is committed to her charity work with the International Rescue Committee as an IRC Voice, making a commitment to do her part to speak up on behalf of some of the world’s most vulnerable. The IRC Voices help raise awareness of the needs of refugees and people who have been displaced by conflict, religious persecution or political oppression around the world. Piper lives in New York City.
In addition to Piper Perabo, Twelfth Night will also star Julia Motyka as Olivia, Josh Gladstone as Sir Toby Belch, and Kate Mueth asMaria. Further casting to be announced soon.
AUGUST 14-15
FREE STAGED READINGS FOR THE COMMUNITY
On Friday and Saturday, August 14-15, Bay Street and Hamptons Shakespeare Festival will co-host The Bay Street Shakespeare Initiative’s second annual performance, Twelfth Night, beginning at 7 pm, at Mashashimuet Park in Sag Harbor. This reading is offered to the community at no charge. There will be seating in bleachers, but guests are invited to bring their own chairs, picnics and blankets to enjoy this special production under the stars.
AUGUST 16
VIP BENEFIT
A third performance will be a VIP benefit on Sunday, August 16 to be held at a private oceanfront estate. The event includes a reception with the cast, and the evening begins at 6:30 pm with cocktails followed by the Twelfth Night reading at 7 pm. Contact Kim Fink at 631-725-0818 Ext. 112 to purchase tickets.
“Last summer, the Bay Street Shakespeare Initiative’s outdoor reading of The Tempest starring John Glover was one of the highlights of our season,” says Scott Schwartz, Artistic Director of Bay Street Theater. “I’m so excited this summer to partner with Hamptons Shakespeare Festival, and to work with Piper Perabo and the rest of a marvelous cast as we present Twelfth Night, one of the Bard’s most romantic and delightful comedies, outside under the stars in Sag Harbor.”
The Bay Street Shakespeare Initiative is offering supporters the opportunity to be a patron of the world of Shakespeare by sponsoring a character in Twelfth Night, as part of the Join the Company campaign. Sponsors will get the opportunity to attend the first read through of the play, meet with the actors, and will receive complimentary passes to the VIP Benefit on August 16, as well as to be photographed with the cast members playing their sponsored characters. Contact Bay Street’s Development office at 631-725-0818 for details.
The Join the Company sponsor levels are:
$2500
- Viola – A shipwrecked lady
- Malvolio – Olivia’s steward
- Olivia – A wealthy countess
- Duke Orsino – Duke of Illyria
$1000
- Sebastian – Viola’s twin
- Sir Toby Belch – Olivia’s cousin
- Feste – A clown & musician
- Antonio – Sea captain and friend to Sebastian
$500
- Valentine – Gentleman attending Count Orsino
- Maria – Olivia’s gentlewoman
- Sir Andrew Aguecheek – A rich man who Sir Toby brings to be Olivia’s wooer
Hamptons Shakespeare Festival, a nonprofit organization, has provided cultural and educational programs on the East End since 1996. Its free outdoor productions have been seen by tens of thousands of individuals and families. It has employed hundreds of actors, musicians, technicians, administrators, and others. And its educational programs have reached thousands of children from Montauk to Manhattan.
Bay Street Theater & Sag Harbor Center for the Arts is a year-round, not-for-profit professional theater and community cultural center which endeavors to innovate, educate, and entertain a diverse community through the practice of the performing arts. We serve as a social and cultural gathering place, an educational resource, and a home for a community of artists.
