Three actors, 37 plays, and 97 minutes to get through all of them — that's the pitch behind Shakespeare Napa Valley's new production at the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, where a whirlwind comedy takes over the Carneros sculpture grounds starting Friday. The show, titled The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) [revised] [again], packs in costume changes, physical comedy, improvisation, and audience interaction as it barrels through the Bard's tragedies, comedies, histories, and even his sonnets.
According to The Napa Valley Register, the production runs for six performances between Friday and August 24, with shows at 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, August 14, Saturday, August 15, Saturday, August 22, and Sunday, August 23, plus 2 to 4 p.m. matinees on Sunday, August 16, and Monday, August 24. It's staged at di Rosa's Carneros campus, west of Napa at 5200 Sonoma Highway, and features actors Rio Codda, Matt Cowell, and Sofia Quiñones sprinting through sword fights, romance, puppets, slapstick, and plenty of audience participation.
A Longtime Partnership Between Two Napa Institutions
The production marks the latest chapter in a partnership between Shakespeare Napa Valley and di Rosa, which previously staged Twelfth Night in 2024 and A Midsummer Night's Dream in 2025 as part of their site-integrated Shakespeare Summer Stroll along di Rosa's sculpture trails, according to Shakespeare Napa Valley. Founded in 2010 by artistic director Jennifer King, the company debuted with a free public performance of The Taming of the Shrew in Napa's Veterans Memorial Park and has since drawn a cumulative audience of more than 30,000 spectators across Napa County with its outdoor and site-integrated shows, per Napa Valley College, where the company maintains deep institutional roots.
Director Olivia Cowell serves as Shakespeare Napa Valley's Executive Artistic Director, leads the youth education nonprofit Cafeteria Kids Theater, and teaches theater arts at Napa Valley College. The Register reports that Cowell directed this production and praised her three actors' ability to perform lines and improvise at short notice. Cowell said the show uses creative methods to present all 37 plays in a funny abridgment, telling the paper that audiences can expect humor, sword fights, tragedy, romance, puppets, and fast-paced ridiculousness.
A Family Affair With Deep Roots in the Script
Cowell's husband, Matt Cowell, serves as the company's Producing Artistic Director and stars in the production alongside her; the Register notes he first became interested in William Shakespeare at age 16. Actor Rio Codda has worked onstage with Olivia Cowell since 2006, and told the paper, “Any chance I can get to do Shakespeare, I'm happy with it.” The third cast member, Sofia Quiñones, was previously a student of Cowell's before joining the show, and said the project sounded too special to pass up.
Quiñones praised Cowell's engaging and thoughtful direction and said she hopes audiences will explore Shakespeare's work further after seeing the show. Codda said he hopes viewers will simply have a good time and reconnect with Shakespeare's plays, while Cowell said her own hope is that audiences walk away curious about different interpretations of the Bard's writing.
The Script's Own Storied History
The abridged comedy itself has a lineage nearly as tangled as its plot. It was originally created in 1987 by Reduced Shakespeare Company founders Adam Long, Daniel Singer, and Jess Winfield, debuting at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe before a nine-year run in London's West End, according to Broadway Play Publishing Inc. The script was later updated into a Revised edition in 2010 and again into [Revised] [Again] to modernize its jokes and cultural references while preserving its 97-minute runtime, per Theatre on the Ridge. Shakespeare Napa Valley shares a direct artistic connection to that lineage, having hosted Reduced Shakespeare Company playwrights Reed Martin and Austin Tichenor in 2015 and 2019 to workshop new abridged plays in Napa before those shows toured nationally.
A Venue Facing Its Own Uncertain Future
Di Rosa's 217-acre estate, purchased by art collector Rene di Rosa in 1960 and opened to the public in 1997, holds roughly 1,600 Northern California artworks, an 80-piece outdoor sculpture meadow, and a 35-acre lake protected under a Napa County Land Trust designation, according to a Wikipedia entry on the center. The theater show arrives as di Rosa navigates significant financial strain: in January, the center listed its Carneros property for $10.9 million amid severe operational deficits while trying to keep its full art collection intact, as Hoodline previously reported.
By June, public debate over that listing had expanded to include potential conservation partnerships with the Napa County Open Space District and Napa County Land Trust aimed at preserving public access to the outdoor sculpture grounds, Hoodline reported at the time. Open questions remain about who will ultimately own the property and whether any conservation agreement will permanently protect public access to the grounds. Hosting an energetic, ticketed production like this one fits into di Rosa's broader push to expand event partnerships and generate revenue while the sale remains pending.
Tickets for all six performances are available through Shakespeare Napa Valley's website. For now, the sprint through all 37 plays gives Napa audiences one more reason to walk di Rosa's sculpture trails before the future of the estate itself is settled.
