Old Globe summer season: comedy, drama, Shakespeare

Shakespeare, second chances and the desire for redemption fuel the Old Globe’s 2008 summer season in San Diego.

Samuel Taylor and Cornelia Otis Skinner’s 1958 comedy “The Pleasure of His Company,” in which a prodigal playboy tries to be dad to his debutante daughter, will be presented July 17-Aug. 17 in the Old Globe Theater.

Next up will be “Sight Unseen,” Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Donald Margulies’ drama about an artist whose efforts to rediscover his creative passion spark an unexpected identity crisis. It will play in the San Diego Museum of Art’s Copley Auditorium, which will house the Globe’s arena-style second stage during construction of the Conrad Prebys Theatre Center.

Also on tap: the Old Globe’s 2008 Shakespeare Festival, featuring “Romeo and Juliet” (July 2-Sept. 28), “The Merry Wives of Windsor” (July 6-Sept. 27) and “All’s Well That Ends Well” (June 28-Sept. 26), performed in nightly rotation in the outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Theatre.

-- Lynne Heffley