Free Shakespeare in the Park Returns to Western Maryland
- Aug 4, 2025
- 2 min read
Cumberland Theatre will present pirate-themed Love’s Labour’s Lost at the Gilchrist Gallery this weekend
The Cumberland Theatre is proud to once again be presenting free Shakespeare in the Park to local residents. In 2023, the theatre partnered with the Embassy Theatre in Downtown Cumberland and Our Town Theatre in Oakland to create a month-long festival of events centered around the works and styling of William Shakespeare. Since then, the theatres having been working together to devote the month of August to the works of the Bard.
The Cumberland Theatre’s production of Love’s Labour’s Lost will take place at the Gilchrist Gallery Garden on August 8th and 9th at 7:00 pm. Admission is free and residents are welcome to bring their own blankets and chairs to enjoy a relaxing evening.
Reimagined the time times of Pirates and plundering, this comedy centers on four young men who fall in love against their wills. The men, pledge to better themselves for three years, avoiding all contact with women. When the Princess of France arrives on a state visit, the king insists she and her ladies camp away from the ship. Even so, each young man falls in love with one of the ladies.
Meanwhile, Don Armado, a Spaniard, falls for a servant girl, Jacquenetta. Costard, an illiterate local, mixes up two letters he is to deliver, one from Armado to Jacquenetta and the other from Berowne, one of the king’s companions, to Rosaline, one of the French ladies.
The men confess they are in love, and devise a pageant for the ladies, who set a trap for them by exchanging identifying markers. The play features laughter, dance and plenty of sword-fighting!
The cast features a diverse group of actors – many of whom were a cast members in the recent productions of The Wedding Singer and Grease. Playing the roles of King Ferdinand and the Princess of France will be Nolen Petrosky (recently Robbie Hart in The Wedding Singer) and Kassie Kueffner (recently Sandy in Grease). Playing their respective courts will be Brian Records, Addie Skillman, Gianni Saverio, Kiersten Gasemy, Emily Snyder and Abel Haddish who is making his CT debut.
Featured as Don Aramado and Jaquentta are Sean Besecker and Shanna Brajevic. Also appearing in featured roles are Graham Luker, Emma Schilling, Kirk Squires and Grace Stevenson.
The show is under the direction of Darrell Rushton with script editing by Sam Little. Marcus Hardinger serves as the stage manager with Graham Luker serving as assistant stage manager. Jennifer Clark will be designing the costumes with Kyle Wolford providing sound design.
The show is performed with one short intermission and is appropriate for all ages.
More information on Love’s Labour’s Lost as well as the offerings from Our Town Theatre can be found at cumberlandtheatre.com and ourtowntheatre.org.
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This sounds like such a fun way to experience Shakespeare, especially with the pirate twist! Free outdoor theatre in a garden setting is the perfect summer evening plan. I love that they’re keeping the tradition alive and collaborating across theatres to celebrate the Bard all month. The mix of familiar faces from Grease and The Wedding Singer with new talent should make for a lively cast. I recently saw something on https://englandderbyshire.co.uk/ about how community theatre builds local culture, and this feels like a perfect example. Definitely worth bringing a blanket and settling in for some sword-fighting and laughs!
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