Grove Shakespeare Festival Will Expand Its Season

Amid signs of new financial health after its worst cash crisis and buoyed by a turnabout in cooperation from the City Council, the Grove Shakespeare Festival announced this week that it will present an enlarged 1991 season.

The classical troupe will offer six plays by subscription next year, one more than this year:

* Christopher Hampton’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” Tom Lehrer’s “Tomfoolery” and Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” will be staged in the 172-seat Gem Theatre.

* Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” “Measure for Measure” and “The Taming of the Shrew” will occupy the 550-seat Festival Amphitheatre.

* Dylan Thomas’ “A Child’s Christmas in Wales,” the perennial holiday show, will be a non-subscription offering, in the Gem.

The season announcement followed the council’s unanimous agreement to extend the Grove’s current management contract for the indoor Gem and the outdoor Amphitheatre--both city-owned facilities--for six months beyond its expiration date of June 30. Further, the council directed the city staff to accommodate a Grove request for a change in a key clause of the contract that enables the city to order the troupe out of the facilities simply by giving 90 days’ written notice.

By extending the contract to Dec. 31, 1991, and seeking a mutually acceptable termination clause the council allayed any fears by Grove officials that its 1991 schedule could be disrupted in mid-season.

The city staff will meet with Grove officials and will make a recommendation to the council on Jan. 7 for “new language in the contract that protects both parties,” Deputy City Manager Michael D. Fenderson said.

Meanwhile, Thomas F. Bradac, the Grove artistic director, said the programming choices for next season were made with an eye toward “artistic challenge” and “commercial viability,” despite the fact that several of the selections are so familiar as to constitute a common diet for high school productions and community theaters.

“The Merchant of Venice,” one of Shakespeare’s more difficult plays to do well, was “the most requested” of the Bard’s works in an audience survey conducted by the Grove last January, Bradac said. “We’ve never done it,” he noted. “It will be our 13th season next year, and I think it’s time.”