LA GRANDE — A Roman warrior will face his downfall to open this year’s Summer Shakespeare Festival.

The weeklong event opens with Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus” with Nicholas Vece in the title role.

Director Grant Turner said “Coriolanus” is a show he has wanted to present for a long time, but he needed the right actor to play the lead.

“I love Coriolanus. It’s always been in the back of my head. I think the story is great, and I love the ambiguity of it all,” he said. “I have wanted to do this show for forever, but I didn’t have a Coriolanus. Nick has the swagger that I need, the brashness. He’s also charming and delightful and perfect for the role.”

In the play, Coriolanus the soldier tries to become Coriolanus the politician to rule Rome.

Written between 1605 and 1608, “Coriolanus” is one of Shakespeare’s final tragedies, and Turner said it is a little different than many of Shakespeare’s other works.

“‘Coriolanus’ is about a great soldier who performs an amazing feat on the battlefield. His handlers and his family and those around him try to take advantage of this opportunity and insert him into the political party of Rome, and he’s just not wired that way,” Turner said. “It’s a fascinating story about politics, it’s a fascinating story about hubris and ambition.”

“Coriolanus” will open on July 12 in the Schwarz Theater in Loso Hall on the Eastern Oregon University campus. Performances are also scheduled for July 14, 17, 19 and 21.

Theatre in the Ronde

“Coriolanus” is one of two plays making up the 2024 Summer Shakespeare Festival for the newly renamed “Theatre in the Ronde,” a play on both the Grande Ronde Valley and William Shakespeare’s rounded Globe Theatre.

Turner said the group began as the La Grande Shakespeare Company in 2014, and, for the past two years, they have hosted a summer Shakespeare Festival out of Elgin. The Summer Shakespeare Festival is returning to La Grande this year with performances on the campus of Eastern Oregon University.

The Summer Shakespeare Festival is July 12-21 and will also feature performances of “Julius Caesar” (shows July 13-21) and events with special guest actor Macy-Jacob Seelochan.

Last summer, members of the La Grande Shakespeare troupe traveled to Great Britain and were able to see Macy-Jacob Seelochan perform in “As You Like It” at the Globe Theatre. That performance led to an invitation, and Seelochan will present at two Summer Shakespeare Festival events: a Q&A and a stage reading of one of Shakespeare’s works.

Tickets

Tickets are available for individual events for $20 or a Summer Shakespeare Festival Pass is $50 and includes admission for one person to one showing of “Coriolanus,” one showing of “Julius Caesar,” the Q&A with Macy-Jacob Seelochan and the staged reading.

Tickets and the detailed schedule are available through the Theatre in the Ronde website theatreintheronde.square.site/events.