By Jackie Demaline
The Cincinnati Enquirer

When Cincinnati Shakespeare Festival opens A Midsummer Night's Dream next Thursday (playing through April 13), it will mark the return of company favorite Giles Davies.

Dream and Davies are a harbinger of things to come as the festival marks its 10th anniversary in the spirit of reunion.

Among the highlights are the rescheduling of Hamlet with Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, dropped from this year's lineup when the festival underwent a massive reorganization and budget crunch.

The festival will feature the strongest acting ensemble in town next season: Christopher Guthrie, Matt Johnson, Corinne Mohlenhoff, Taylore Mahogany Scott, associate artistic director Brian Isaac Phillips and artistic director Nick Rose.

All of this, says Rose, are concrete signs that the festival is back on track. The budget will hold at just under $650,000, but "the winter of our discontent has ended," he laughs. "That which does not kill us only makes us stronger."

Guest artist contracts, which were dropped for the remainder of this season, will be resumed. Among the actors returning are Michael Burnham, Davies, Jeremy Dubin, Sherman Fracher, Leanna Hieber, Dan Kenney, Marni Penning and R. Chris Reeder.

The season:

• Sept. 18-Oct. 12, The Taming of the Shrew, featuring company co-founder Penning

• Oct. 23-Nov. 16, Dracula, with Davies in the title role

• Nov. 28-Dec. 30, Jacob Marley's Christmas Carol

• Jan. 15-Feb. 15, Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, with Phillips in the title role

• Feb. 19-March 14, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

• March 25-April 11, the rarely performed Shakespeare romance Pericles.

Rose believes the festival has found the right way to mark its first decade. The season, he says, "is a powerhouse across the board with one new Shakespeare."

"This will help re-establish who we are - dedicated to the programming that brought us here and with a pioneering spirit ... ."

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