Cyrano at Boscobel, Aug. 25

YWAA will host its annual Boscobel event, Aug. 25, featuring Cyrano, directed by Jason O'Connell. 

As part of its annual outing at Boscobel and featuring productions of the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, YWAA will host alumni, family and friends for performance at Cyrano, Sunday, Aug. 25 (7:30 pm) in Garrison.

Yale lecturer Murray Biggs once again will open the events of the day with a pre-performance lecture at 3:30 pm. YWAA guests will then have a chance to have a picnic on the grounds of Boscobel before joining the public to watch actors of the HVSF group present Cyrano.

To purchase tickets for the event and join the affairs of the day, click Boscobel Tickets.  YWAA board member Rich Fabbro '76 is organizing the day's events.

In most years, the YWAA Sunday event often showcases a Shakespearean play.  Last year the Festival performed Richard II.  In 2016, the performers presented a female actress Maria Christina-Oliveras '91, a Yale alumna, in the male role Macbeth. Other "Yale Day at Boscobel" performances in the past included The Winter's Tale, Hamlet, and Othello.

A Yale expert on Shakespeare, Biggs, in his Boscobel lectures, offers insights, special tips, clues, and color before the Yale group watches the evening performance.

This year the August Yale gathering won't see a Shakespeare production. The actor, Jason O'Connell, who will play the part of Cyrano in this year's Cyrano, co-wrote the drama with Brenda Withers.  Meredith McDonough is its director.

Cyrano is O'Connell's loose interpretation of the life and fancies of Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, the 17th century French novelist and playwright. The play chronicles Cyrano's crush, love letters and love interests in Roxanne even as France prepares for war with Spain.