Beginning in 2012 as a Costume Shop Intern, Liz Schneider now performs dual duty as Assistant Costume Designer and Costume Liaison for the Actors’ Renaissance Season.
Over the past four years, she has worked for the ASC Costume Shop in many different roles including Wardrobe Manager, Assistant Shop Manager and First Hand. In addition, she worked as Assistant Designer for Jenny McNee on Tate’s The History of King Lear which won Austin Critics’ Table for best costume design.
In William Congreve's witty farce, love and money square off as two brothers attempt to follow their hearts without losing their inheritance. Populated by a lover named Valentine; his clever beloved, Angelica; a less-than-virtuous Miss Frail; and a braggart, Tattle, Love for Love takes a satirical and sardonic look into Restoration-era romance.
Take part in the adventure and embrace the endless possibilities of imagination in this action-packed coming-of-age prequel to Peter Pan. The five-time Tony-winning Broadway hit, ideally suited to the signature ASC style, brings to life the heart-warming and richly imaginative story of how Neverland and Peter Pan came to life. Filled with music, mermaids, a celestial treasure, a spunky leading lady, a band of wacky pirates, an island crawling with intrigue, and one absurdly wicked Captain, Peter and the Starcatcher will make you fly.
Rumors abound in this searing comedy of manners, where no one can avoid the stinging bite of gossip – even when the truth is sometimes juicier. A rich guardian tests his wards to choose the worthier heir, but there's more to them than meets the eye. Throw in a few scandal-mongers, a wandering wife, and a sneaky hireling named Snake, and A School for Scandal will have you rolling in you seat. (How undignified.)
Loaded with startling contemporary commentary on politics, politicians, and "the people" politicians represent, Coriolanus gives us a stark look at the triumphs and failures of a tragic hero. With his insightful analysis on the political journey of Rome's most famous military man, Shakespeare highlights the pitfalls of pride and the danger of arrogance in one of his final and most complex tragedies.
Against the backdrop of social intolerance suddenly buffeted by inevitable change, Shakespeare weaves interconnected tales of friendship, love, and family while bringing to life one of his strongest and most resourceful heroines. Mingling dreamy romance with senseless and timeless cultural conflicts, The Merchant of Venice reveals that mercy and love can come from unexpected places.
Judith Shakespeare has one ambition: to be a playwright, just like her famous brother Will. When her debt-ridden father forces her into an engagement, she runs away with the help of dashing actor Ned Alleyn, hoping to join her brother in London. But when Judith arrives in the plague-stricken capital, she finds her brother gone, Ned engaged to another, and her play refused. Judith befriends the women in a local brothel, and together, they decide to stage her play in secret. But Elizabethan London is a dangerous place to perform an unlicensed play. Shakespeare’s Sister is full of ideas and events as relevant to Shakespeare’s London as they are to today’s Virginia: the challenges of making a living, religious extremism, and the conflict between social expectations and individual dreams.
Everybody loves the fair maid, Phillis – or maybe it's just the three smitten Golding brothers. Anthony, Ferdinand, and Frank must battle it out to win her love, and they're not above underhanded tricks and disguises to get her attention. This wickedly witty city comedy pits brother against brother, and shows even in sibling rivalries, somebody has to come out on top. ASC veteran actor René Thornton, Jr. steps into the director/manager chair like Peter Quince in Midsummer to lead the troupe in reviving this show for (we think) the first time in over 400 years.
A president for the people, by the people – that's who Andrew Jackson believes he is. Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson careens through the life and career of the charismatic and controversial seventh president, complete with rock anthems, power ballads, and wily politicians. This unswerving look at American history (sort of) and one of its most infamous presidents will keep you singing along and at the edge of your seat.
Inspired by Shakespeare's The Tempest, Fletcher and Massinger's homage throws French pirates, Portuguese castaways, and a society of Amazonian women together on a New World island. Replete with shipwrecks, unexpected love, reunions, and a little buried treasure, The Sea Voyage will take audiences on an unforgettable adventure.
Family betrayals, romantic infidelities, and false friendships abound in Women Beware Women, where the ladies of the Florentine court must play to win in a deliciously wicked game of lewdness and lies or else risk the ultimate loss, their lives. Middleton's searingly wicked play is as provocative now as it must have been 400 years ago.
An unblinking look into the way humanity confuses lust and love, goodness and self-righteousness, Measure for Measure explores who sins most in a congregation of murderers, pimps, politicians, whores, nuns, and nobles. Shakespeare's electrifying exploration of the arrogance of power hovers tantalizingly between comedy and tragedy.
Shakespeare's final solo play is a moving fairy tale, a wondrous magic show, and a farewell to the stage that still defines our humanity. From the spectacular storm that opens the play, to the island creatures Ariel and Caliban, to the glistering masque of the spirits, and, finally, to Prospero's last acts of reconciliation and forgiveness, The Tempest is a beguiling theatrical miracle.
One of history's most famous love stories, Antony and Cleopatra is Shakespeare's most expansive play, full of all the colliding opposites that make life rich: work and play, war and peace, East and West, and – in the title characters – man and woman. The kaleidoscopic language and action of the play gives us a story which is simultaneously a tragedy and a comedy, both sublime.
Back at the University of Wittenberg for the fall semester, Denmark’s Prince Hamlet finds himself in the center of a debate between two of his professors, the aggressively spiritual Martin Luther and the lewdly logical John Faustus. Like Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Davalos’s 21st-century comedy explores the issues of faith and skepticism with a wickedly modern sense of humour in this prequel to both Hamlet and Doctor Faustus.
While the villainous Don John devises a scheme to shatter the nuptials of Claudio and Hero, the young lovers conspire to trick Beatrice and Benedick into admitting their much-denied love. In this powerful comedy full of sparkling wit, Shakespeare gives us the joy of love won and the ache of love lost. He makes us laugh and breaks our hearts, then magically puts them back together again.
Faustus sells his soul, not for riches, but for knowledge and power; Marlowe weaves a shocking and contemporary tale of the struggle between good and evil, championing what is most daring in the human spirit. In his masterpiece that predates almost all of Shakespeare’s plays, Marlowe breathtakingly conjures Helen of Troy, the Seven Deadly Sins, angels, demons, and Satan himself, before dragging Faustus to Hell.
Hamlet struggles to discern reality from illusion in the rotten state of Denmark as he copes with the loss of his father, his mother's remarriage, and life's biggest questions. For centuries, audiences have seen themselves in the brilliant, troubled prince at the center of this ghost story, comedy, seven-murder revenge thriller, and philosopher's gold mine.
Four controlling fathers attempt to engineer advantageous matches for their respective children, but the children in question have their own ideas about love. Mix in four overly-helpful servants, a slew of disguises, a pair of uncomfortably in-love siblings, and a nurse with a big secret, and the fathers’ best-laid plans quickly unravel in this romantic roller-coaster ride.
Larger-than-life characters collide when Brainworm, a clever servant, works to foil the plans of his master, Knowell, through a series of deceptions and disguises that take him all over London. Jonson uses a single day and a single setting to weave a tight picture of everyday life in a bustling Early Modern city comedy.
When the spouses of Vittoria Corombona and the Duke of Brachiano discover their partners’ infidelities, revenge knows no bounds. Ambitious schemes, murderous plots, and devilish double-crosses run rampant in Rome as the lovers attempt to protect their affair. But, their safety is short-lived, and when the past finds them, it leaves a trail of bodies in its wake.
A group of amorous English exiles revel through Naples during Carnival in this witty comedy featuring disguises, thefts, catfights, and lovestruck antics of all kinds. Writing in the wanton atmosphere of the Restoration, Behn was one of England’s first professional female writers, and her voice shines in her heroines, including a reluctant nun, a famous courtesan, and a thieving wench.
This hilarious comedy is much more than a “battle of the sexes”; it is also a profound look at the necessity of “play” in our lives. This production includes Shakespeare’s “Induction,” which presents the Kate and Petruchio story as a play within the play. Blending romantic comedy and outlandish farce, Shakespeare gives us a love story of psychological liberation and the mysteries of being married.
Buffeted from shore to shore by the winds of destiny, Pericles must navigate the whole of the Mediterranean on his search for peace, love, and family. His journey becomes an astonishing adventure filled with assassins, shipwrecks, pirates, brothels, goddesses, and magicians. He must weather loss and heartbreak before the storm calms with miraculous reunion and wondrous rebirth.
Consumed by obsessive love for a male courtier, the newly-crowned King Edward II risks everything – crown, country, and even his own life – with a dangerous affair. When his foundation of divine right begins to crumble, Edward realizes the limitations of his power, but not before the whispers of treason have started to swell to a roar.
In this rollicking farce, Shakespeare elevates Roman comedy to dizzying heights. Two long-separated twins, their two tricky servants (also twins), a jealous wife, and her lovelorn sister romp through Shakespeare’s shortest play. Filled with mistaken identities, slapstick humor, and the fabulous Dr. Pinch, The Comedy of Errors will have the whole family laughing from the first confusion to the last.
From the first words of the play until the title character loses his head, Shakespeare’s shortest tragedy is also his most unrelenting examination of the dark side of humanity. Driven to bloody deeds by their lust for power, Macbeth and his Lady fight to hold on to their ill-gotten throne, their sanity, and each other by any means necessary.
Enormous wit, tremendous bravery, and a gargantuan nose. Cyrano is passionately in love with the glorious Roxanne, but believes that she could never love him as he is. He creates poetry to woo his great love on behalf of the beautiful Christian, whom Roxanne imagines she loves. After years of mourning, Cyrano finally learns the answer to the question he could never ask.