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Welcome!

From the staff, board of directors, and myself we want to welcome you to our 5th production this season. As we are wrapping up this season, I am thrilled to bring Julius Caesar to the stage in a fully staged production. During our first season, we presented Caesar as a staged reading. We had our first Equity actors in that reading and I am happy that one of those actors has returned to reprise the same part with our first full Equity contract! 

In addition to having a guest director and our first Equity actor, we are also using our space at the WELL CDC in a very unqiue way. We are going back to our roots and creating a black box style space for this production in order to have a thrust configuartion again. 

I am so pleased that you have joined us for this great Shakespearean work. 

Best, 

Dane CT Leasure 

Producing Artistic Director 

Note from the Director

Rome was such a place as we live in now. The powerful debate whether to allow people fleeing from rape, brutal murder, and genocide to enter our country, while dining with the super-rich, drinking cocktails with donors whose personal wealth outweighs the combined GDP of the countries from whom the refugees flee. In the century or so leading up to the birth of Christ, the republic collapsed under the weight of a few great men: Pompey the Great, Mark Antony, and Caesar Augustus. The greatest of all these was Julius Caesar. Rome was the greatest society the world had ever seen, combining the military might of Alexander and Genghis Khan with the civility of classical Athens and Victorian England. But Caesar died at the hands of those trying to save the republic (spoiler alert), setting off a chain of events that would lead to the slaughter of the senate and the ascension of an Emperor. The state is destroyed by the greatest generation warring for the Rome that s/he desperately wants to save. The world needs no villains when the heroes slaughter each other. 

- MBG

What's in a Name? 

What is Rubber City Theatre?

Rubber City Shakespeare Company’s board has voted to rename the company, Rubber City Theatre to align with the strategic plan and new company initiatives. The name change will officially take effect on June 20, 2017, following the closing of Lear, the final show of the 2016/2017 season.

Why the name change? 
“We were getting a lot of people that were confused between us and Ohio Shakespeare Festival now that they’re year-round,’’ operating at Greystone Hall downtown, said Producing Artistic Director Dane Leasure. “It’s giving us greater flexibility to provide professional quality theater at an affordable price, and it’s not just Shakespeare.” When Rubber City stepped out of its Shakespearean mode to produce the epic musical Aida last winter, the company enjoyed sold-out audiences. The musical was such a huge success, it helped clinch the theater’s decision to widen its artistic offerings for its fifth season. - Kerry Clawson; Akron Beacon Journal 03/21/2017