The New Shakespeare Company's summer season starts at The Open Air Theatre in Regent's Park on Monday 4th June and runs until Saturday 8th September.

Gary Wilmot, in his first professional Shakespearean role, plays Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream which opens the 2001 season at the Open Air Theatre (previews from Monday 4th June, opens Monday 11th June).

Love's Labour's Lost (previews from Wednesday 6th June, opens Friday 15th June), is directed by sought-after director Rachel Kavanaugh. Elegant wit and verbal trickery combine with a romantic celebration of love as four well-intentioned, but ultimately misguided, young men discover the impossibility of denying true love.

Ian Talbot, Artistic Director of the New Shakespeare Company, directs this season's musical - Where's Charley? based on Brandon Thomas' Charley's Aunt (previews from Tuesday 24th July, opens Thursday 26th July). Receiving its first professional production since it played in London in 1958 with Norman Wisdom, Where's Charley? is a Broadway take on a quintessentially English comedy-farce of mistaken identities.

Joseph Papp's Broadway version of Gilbert & Sullivan's The Pirates of Penzance returns to the Open Air Theatre for a limited run from Monday 27th August, prior to a major UK tour. The acclaimed 2000 production was nominated for three Olivier awards including Outstanding Musical Production and Ian Talbot for Best Director.

For children, the New Shakespeare Company and The Unicorn Theatre present Pinocchio in the Park, which opens on Wednesday 1st August. The play is a new adaptation by Michael Rosen of Carlo Collodi's classic Italian fairy tale Pinocchio.

Secure online booking is available at the website www.open-air-theatre.org.uk and at www.tickets.com (£1 per ticket booking fee).