The Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival (PSF) rounds out its season, giving its “Extreme Shakespeare” treatment to the Bard’s “Cymbeline,” as “Shakespeare for Kids” tackles “Twelfth Night” with puppets and wacky humor.

Meanwhile, The Pennsylvania Playhouse presents “Kiss Me Kate,” a musical comedy inspired by Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew.”

“Cymbeline” runs July 24 - Aug. 4, Schubert Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University.

“Shakespeare for Kids” is July 24 - Aug. 3, Main Stage Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University.

“Kiss Me Kate” is July 26 - Aug. 11, Pennsylvania Playhouse.

“Cymbeline” is billed as “Shakespeare meets ‘The Princess Bride’” in a romantic adventure weaving elements of Shakespeare’s comedy, tragedy and history into an epic fairy tale of magic and power.

When King Cymbeline of Britain (Eric Hissom) and the father of Imogen (Taysha Marie Canales) unjustly banishes her husband Posthumus (Hassiem Muhammad), the princess embarks on a mythic quest to prove her loyalty, outwit her wicked stepmother (Kimberly Gilbert) and reclaim her true love.

With “Extreme Shakespeare,” actors present a play in the way it is believed Shakespeare’s company would have. Actors arrive with their lines learned, rehearse on their own without a director, raid the costume shop and open in a matter of a few days.

Hissom, who has been in six “Extreme Shakespeare” productions at PSF, was tasked with trimming the script.

“This play defies genre,” Hissom says. “It has everything: comedy, tragedy, war, star-crossed lovers, political intrigue, multiple locations, multiple disguises, kidnappings, triple crossings, high-stakes gambling, mistaken identities, misused elixirs, a wicked stepmother, and much more. Written late in his career, it’s as if Shakespeare wanted to write a play that was all plays in one.”

Hissom says as he worked on the script, he was swept up in this “wild adventure of a play.

“I do think there is something about the adrenaline-fueled, collective-creativity of the ‘extreme’ process that may lend itself to this mixed-genre, extravaganza of a play,” he says.

The cast includes Lee Baud, Tyler Borneo, Akeem Davis, Gregory Isaac, Abby Jeanne, Iyanu Joshuasville, Ciara Kelley, Anthony Lawton, Eli Lynn, Giovanni Marini, Ian Merrill Peakes, Karen Peakes, David Pica, Christian Tuffy, Jabari C. Williams and Fiona Wilson.

Meet the actors for a talk-back after the Aug. 1 performance.

The production includes free “Prologues,” insights into the play in an informal setting held in the theater 45 minutes prior to curtain.

There will be an audio-described and open-captioned performance, 2 p.m. Aug. 3.

“Cymbeline,” Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, 7:30 p.m. July 24, 25, 26, 31, Aug. 1, 2; 2, 7:30 p.m. July 27, Aug. 3; 2 p.m. July 29, Aug. 4; 6:30 p.m. July 30, Schubert Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Avenue, Center Valley. 610-282-9455, https://pashakespeare.org/

“Shakespeare for Kids,” which has been an annual children’s show at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival since 2009, is written by Erin Sheffield.

The high-energy one-hour production is designed for children ages 4 to 10 to experience Shakespeare’s vibrant language and characters.

Tyler Borneo, Ciara Kelley and Gabrielle Moseley lead “Shakespeare for Kids.” Using a combination of songs, puppets and scenes from William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night,” the trio provides families with the opportunity to introduce children to Shakespeare.

The production is directed by Matt Pfeiffer.

There’s a “Shakespeare for Kids” tour to area libraries: 11 a.m. July 26, Allentown Public Library; 11 a.m. July 27, Lower Macungie Library; 11 a.m. July 31, Bucks County Free Library Quakertown Branch, and 11 a.m. Aug. 1, Hellertown Area Library. Register at each library.

“Shakespeare for Kids,” Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, 10 a.m. July 24, 25, 30, Aug. 2, 3, Main Stage Theatre, Labuda Center for the Performing Arts, DeSales University, 2755 Station Avenue, Center Valley. 610-282-9455, https://pashakespeare.org/

“Kiss Me Kate!” was inspired by the on-stage and off-stage battling of husband-and-wife actors Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne during their 1935 production of “The Taming of the Shrew.”

The Playhouse production, directed by London Griffith, is the second production this season at the Bethlehem theater to have an orchestra.

In the musical comedy, passions run high as leading lady Lilli Vanessi (Alexis Smith) and her ex-husband, actor-director Fred Graham (Armand Reiser), bicker onstage and off in a production of Shakespeare’s “Taming of the Shrew.”

A secondary romance concerns Lois Lane (Deanna Mogianesi), the actress playing Bianca, and her gambler boyfriend, Bill (Michael J. Sheridan), who runs afoul of gangsters.

With romance, comedy, sophistication and behind-the-scenes hijinks, “Kiss Me, Kate!” combines the irreverent humor of Sam and Bella Spewack, who wrote the book; Cole Porter, who wrote the music and lyrics, and William Shakespeare.

Musical numbers include “So In Love,” “Wunderbar,” “Tom, Dick or Harry,” “Too Darn Hot,” “Brush Up Your Shakespeare,” “I Hate Men,” “Always True to You (In My Fashion)” and “Another Op’nin, Another Show.”

The cast includes Shaun Hayes, Caitlin McDermott, Joseph Mowad, Cameron Kunsman, Danny Carroll, Caleb Flannery, Evan Heger, Johnny Bertone, Andrew Galindez, Lauryn Littlejohn, Daniel VanArsdale, Sydney Sniezek, Gabrielle Bleice, Olivia Bell, Nico Rodriguez, Sara Woodring, Ella St. Pierre, Rose Fortkamp, Bethany Wentling and Lucy Moore.

“Kiss Me Kate,” 7:30 p.m. July 26, 27, Aug. 2. 3, 9, 10; 6 p.m. July 28, Aug. 11, Pennsylvania Playhouse, 390 Illick’s Mill Road, Bethlehem. 610-865-6665, http://www.paplayhouse.org/

“Curtain Rises” is a column about the theater, stage shows, the actors in them and the directors and artists who make them happen. To request coverage, email: Paul Willistein, Focus editor, pwillistein@tnonline.com.