It’s been a quarter of a century since Father Gerard J. Schubert founded the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival.

Last summer, Father Schubert got to see the first half of the PSF 2015 season. Patrick Mulcahy, PSF Producing Artistic Director, sets the stage:

Father Schubert had just seen a performance of PSF’s critically-acclaimed and box office smash production of “Les Miserables.” Father Bernard F. O’Connor, DeSales University president, attended the performance with Father Schubert.

Recalls Mulcahy, “Father O’Connor leaned over and said, ‘Jerry, what do you think of your festival?’ ‘We have arrived,’ Father replied.”

The 25th anniversary of PSF arrives for the 2016 season. Father Shubert won’t be there. He died Dec. 6, 2015. PSF’s 25th season is dedicated to Schubert (1929-2015).

“We’ve been trying to find ways to communicate this great man’s legacy, Father Schubert’s legacy,” says Mulcahy, now in his 13th season leading PSF.

“We wanted to try to have a lot of impact and sometimes with very simple gestures. In The Quill [PSF] newsletter there is a one-pager with Father Schubert on stage and a quote. So, there’s some gestures we’re doing with that, in both The Quill and the [Festival] program.

Even though the season was chosen prior to Schubert’s death, Mulcahy says, “Choosing to do three Shakespeare plays, and a play inspired by Shakespeare, and a Noel Coward play that references ‘Julius Caesar’ is a fitting tribute.”

PSF’s 25th anniversary season is, on the Main Stage: “West Side Story,” June 15 - July 3; “The Taming of the Shrew,” July 13 - Aug. 7 in repertory with “Blithe Spirit,” July 21 - Aug. 7, and “Shakespeare for Kids,” July 27 - Aug. 6, and in Schubert Theatre: present “Julius Caesar,” June 22 - July 17; “Love’s Labour’s Lost,” July 27 - Aug. 7, and “The Little Mermaid,” June 3 - Aug. 6.

“The best way to honor this man is do to what we do, which is to keep producing great theater,” says Mulcahy.

“‘Taming of the Shrew’ was the first play that Father directed in the first year of the Shakespeare Festival [1991]. And ‘Romeo and Juliet’ was the other Shakespeare play that year. And doing ‘West Side Story’ [which is based on “Romeo and Juliet” has a lovely resonance, harking back,” Mulcahy says.

“There’s also going to be an event on campus, on July 27, ‘Shakespeare and St. Francis de Sales,’” says Mulcahy. The Salesian Center for Faith and Culture, with Father Thomas Dailey as director, is on the DeSales University campus, home to PSF. There will be a 7 p.m. reception and panel discussion prior to the 8 p.m. curtain about the cross-resonance about these two entities.

Season of love

PSF has drawn 800,000 to date, with 35,000 attendees expected for the 25th season.

“The season explores a prismatic view of love that gets filtered through life’s other major passions,” says Mulcahy, “like fundamental human needs like power and safety and freedom. In ‘West Side Story,’ love has to fight through tribal warfare. And in ‘Julius Caesar,’ intimacy is in this negotiation, this dance with ambition and honor.

“‘Taming of the Shrew’ is a play about the battle of the sexes. That’s fairly self-evident.

“In ‘Blithe Spirit,’ there’s sort of a nutty take on it with the husband and wife and the ghost of the ex-wife coming back to create that triangulation.

“And ‘Love’s Labour’s Lost’ is a romantic comedy so that has its exploration in a completely different way than any of the other plays.

“And we have ghosts in mutiple plays,” Mulcahy quips.

“Our continuing approach to hire the very best artists is well in evidence here,” Mulcahy says of PSF’s 25th season.

“We have winners and or nominess of Tonys, Emmys, Barrymores, Hayes, BAFTA, Image Awards, Theatre World Awards, Drama Desk Awards.

“The great success of recent seasons is carrying over into people’s interest in this season. Sales are at near record territory. The only record they have to beat is last year, with the ‘Les Miz’ phenomenon. People seem to be getting the message that it’s smart to get our tickets soon.

“What’s becoming an increasing common experience is that when people discover PSF, when they come to see ‘Les Miz’ or something else, their response is ‘I had no idea that the quality is this good.’

“For some years, we’ve been working to get past the best kept secret. Most people don’t know that we’re one of seven theaters on the continent where a destiination visitor or any visitor can come and see this breadth of material in a couple of visits.

Mulcahy says PSF and professional regional theaters have recovered from the Great Recession of 2007-08.

“I think things have gotten better for professional theater as the economy has improved. After the financial collapse, a lot of not-for-profits had problems. We exist for the art, but if we don’t take care of the business side, there is no art.

“There has been a fair amount of growth for Shakespeare theaters nationwide. There’s been 200 for some time. We’re the 15th largest budget. My totally objective opinion is that we’re within the Top 10 win quality.

“With the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s passing, there’s all this information about Shakespeare. There’s a worldwide celebration going on of these great plays.”

Personal and timely

For Mulcahy, the 25th season resonates for personal and timely reasons.

“My wife and I met while she was in ‘Jerome Robbins’ Broadway,’ the compilaton of his choreography including ‘West Side Story,’” says Mulcahy, who was in The Public Theater’s “Shakespeare in the Park.” “We met through a mutual friend. Ellen was in The Joffrey [Ballet] and Twyla Tharp’s [Dance] Company.”

“Julius Caesar,” which Mulcahy is directing, “is certainly timely. You have this politician who rises so quickly and powerfully. People who you expect who would be his allies are trying to stop him.

“Shakespeare doesn’t preach. I don’t think he gives us any answers. In a play that we remember people speaking for the ages, they are speaking to friends. That gives it a cosmic breadth in terms of humanity. Cassius says, ‘This is going to keep happening.’ The larger question is how do we create government and create societies?

“Our production will intentionally have elements of past, present and future. It was written in Elizabethan England about ancient Rome and it’s being done in 2016. Our goal is to access elements of each of these.

“My stronger interest is go find a commonality which I think lifts it into a higher poetic realm and the intersection of truth and beauty. It has the attraction of a history play, where we can look at it through the lens of something that really happened, and it’s a tragedy.

“The toga influence will be present, but they won’t be in togas. The business suits will be present, but they won’t be in suits.

“The fact that we’re doing this play in an election year is a reminder that togas are not exceptionally important. It was already a post-modern work of art the moment Shakespeare wrote it.

“‘Taming of the Shrew’ is one of the funniest Shakespeare plays and his most popular comedy,” says Mulcahy.

“Matt Pfeiffer [director of ‘Shrew’] is not interested in letting us off the hook on the thornier questions in the play, Even through its farcical elements, it does explore real questions about love. What kind of negotiations do we have to enter in within ourselves to be in a relationship?

“Relationships involve pushing and bending and pushing. The notion is that they really tame each other and parts of themselves, which we all have to to do. It’s not really ‘The Taming of the Shrew.’ It’s two equals coming together. Kate has no love and gets no respect, but she fundamentally is Petruchio’s equal. The more they get to know each other, the more they discover that.

“In ‘Blithe Spirit,’ what’s so funny is the tension between social expectations of how people should behave and then the actual behavior we see. People are pulled between each other’s drives. It’s one of the great classic comedies.

“‘Love Labour’s Lost’ is one of those plays you don’t get to see very often. It’s a sweet romantic comedy with dazzling word play. It cracks with sparkling wit with some really funny Shakespeare clowns.”

Tickets: pashakespeare.org, 610-282-WILL (9455)