The Lake George Theater Lab has announced its 2011 season, “A love letter to the Adirondacks”, including their annual free outdoor Shakes on the Lake “Twelfth Night, or What You Will” (the very first Shakespeare play they performed in Rogers Memorial Park); Tales for Tots Players (a children’s show); “The Cottage”(an eerie and mysterious new play representing the New Play Laboratory); an evening of original Ghost Stories; and “Love Letters” by A.R. Gurney, starring Lake George Theater Lab Artistic Director Lindsey Gates and Adirondack Theater Festival Artistic Director Mark Fleischer.

The season opens with the annual free outdoor production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night, or, What You Will”, Shakespeare’s comedy about love, mistaken identity and the power of will. The Theater Lab has again teamed up with the Classical Acting Studio at New York University’s Associate Director Daniel Spector, who cuts all of Shakespeare’s scripts to 90 minutes, casts the play with graduates of the Classical Studio, rehearses at a breakneck pace and brings a naturalistic Shakespeare to Rogers Memorial Park. Through a grant from New York’s Roundtable Ensemble the production will be performing in New York City’s Riverside Park June 24th and 25th before travelling upstate. July 14th, 15th and 16th, Rogers Memorial Park, Route 9A; 7:30 PM. Rain location is at Bolton Rec Center. Free and outdoors.

Next up is Daisy Foote’s “The Cottage”, an eerie mystery set on an unnamed body of water in upstate New York. Every summer Lake George Theater Lab selects artists to come upstate for a week on the lake and lab a brand new play. The playwright, director and actors all live in one house and workshop the play’s structure, theme, dialogue, etc., and then present a reading to the public with a guided talk-back afterward for the playwright to gather as much feedback as possible. Daisy Foote and the director Evan Yionoulis are frequent collaborators, including Ms. Foote’s play “Bhutan” off-Broadway at the Cherry Lane Theater and Daisy’s upcoming play “Him” this Fall at Primary Stages in New York City. Ms. Foote is the daughter of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Horton Foote. July 30; The Sagamore Hotel, 110 Sagamore Road, Bolton Landing; 8:00 PM; $15. Reservations: (518)203-2600.

The full Lake George Theater Lab 2011 season includes:

“Twelfth Night, or, What You Will”

Shakes on the Lake
By William Shakespeare
Directed by Daniel Spector
July 14-16, 7:30 PM
Rogers Memorial Park
Lake Shore Drive, Bolton Landing
Rain location- Bolton Rec Center
Free. Outdoors.

Tales for Tots

Children’s Fairytale performance
July 20, Free
Bolton Free Library
(518)644-2233

“The Cottage”

New Play Lab
By Daisy Foote
Directed by Evan Yionoulis
July 30th, 8 PM
Sagamore Hotel
110 Sagamore Road, Bolton Landing
$15, (518)203-2600

Original Ghost Stories

August 6, 8 PM
Sembrich Opera Museum
Lake Shore Drive, Bolton Landing
$12, (518)203-2600

“Love Letters”

By A.R. Gurney
Directed by Michael Barakiva
Starring Lindsey Gates and Mark Fleischer
August 12-14, 8 PM/2PM
Sagamore Hotel
110 Sagamore Road, Bolton Landing
$25, (518)203-2600