This summer, more Shakespeare on the Common

Last year's free Shakespeare production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" on the Common (above) only ran for seven performances. This summer, there will be more performances. (T. Charles Erickson/file 2007)

A year after a much-criticized decision to halve the run of its free Shakespeare production on Boston Common, the Citi Performing Arts Center announced yesterday it will restore some of the lost shows, and add three performances in Springfield.

The production of "As You Like It" will run from July 18 to Aug. 3 on the Common's Parkman Bandstand, and play the Forest Park amphitheater in Springfield from Aug. 8 to 10.

Last summer, citing a financial crunch, the Citi Center cut the Shakespeare on the Common run from 20 to seven performances, and the production budget from $1 million to $500,000. In addition, the Citi Center decided after the run not to keep on staff Steven Maler, who had staged the free production since 1996.

This year's run will cost $660,000, and Maler will oversee it as freelance director. There will be 15 performances in Boston, and three in Springfield. (There will also be two open dress rehearsals in Boston.) Citi, which agreed to pay $34 million for the naming rights to the center in 2006, will serve as chief sponsor of the production, replacing John Hancock. Citi Center president Josiah Spaulding Jr. would not say how much Citi is providing for the run, only that the amount is "substantial."

"What really played a role is the number of calls we got from people who said, 'Boy, we really would like it to be two weekends rather than one,' " said Spaulding. "Free public programming on the Boston Common is a good thing, and if we can take it and expand it to markets like Springfield, this is a good thing."

In addition to performance cuts, the Citi Center faced criticism last year over Globe reports on a $1.2 million bonus paid to Spaulding for completing his contract - despite years of deficits and a dramatic scaling back of activities, both on the Common and in the center's flagship 3,500-seat Wang Theatre.

Some of those critics praised the decision to restore some of the free run yesterday.

"My main concern was about the salary and the bonus and all of that in a center that was running a deficit," said state Senator Stan Rosenberg (D-Amherst). "I did not know, and I still don't know, enough about what it costs to stage a Shakespearean play. But it sounds like they may, in fact, be giving us more than in the past because we're getting performances in two venues."

Rosenberg said he would consider supporting future state allocations to the center. Over the last two years, legislators provided a total of $700,000 for the free Shakespeare program; $500,000 was spent on last year's Common production, and $200,000 on this year's move to Springfield.

"If they do a good job with this money and they do a good job in Springfield and we've got some money, it would not be a bad idea," said Rosenberg.

Kate Snodgrass, artistic director Boston Playwrights' Theatre, said she was glad to hear of the plans for this summer.

"It's so hard to comprehend what could have been behind [last year's reduction] because it was such a stupid decision," said Snodgrass. "Thank God somebody saw the light and thought about the bigger picture."

Maler's Commonwealth Shakespeare Company put on the first free production in 1996. Over the years, it received support from the Wang, then Citi Center. In 2003, Maler signed a deal to join the then-Wang Center and was installed as vice president of artistic programming. The budget of Shakespeare on the Common went from $570,414 in 2004 to nearly $1 million in 2006.

But in December of that year, Spaulding told Maler that his management position had been eliminated and the production budget for the 2007 run would fall to $481,027. Spaulding said the center had lost about $1.4 million on the free Shakespeare productions.

After severing ties with Maler last year, Spaulding approached others to put on the summer Shakespeare. The Cambridge-based Actors' Shakespeare Project shied away from the offer, largely out of loyalty to Maler, artistic director Benjamin Evett said yesterday.

The Lenox-based Shakespeare & Company met with Spaulding, but ultimately decided to make no proposal after estimating the costs at $1 million.

"It was not going to be cheap," said managing director Nicholas J. Puma Jr. "It's a big deal to have this going back and forth. We saw ourselves in the position that it was not worth attempting based on what they had proposed. They were hoping that it would be lower."

Maler said he has been in discussions with Spaulding since last summer, but only reached agreement on this year's show about two weeks ago.

"Joe and I have worked together on this project for eight years now, and we feel this is the best way to do it," said Maler. "We're thrilled with the fact it's going to two and a half weeks."

Maler said he'll begin searching for a cast today and hopes to sign on a set designer by the end of February. He expects that people unhappy with last summer's smaller-scale production will be pleased by "As You Like It."

"One of the things we learned from last summer is how to do our jobs more efficiently," he said, adding that costs can be saved this year by reusing decking built for last year's show. "That's a very valuable lesson to learn in this tight economy. This year, the audiences will see a bigger physical production."

The Shakespeare announcement came on the same day the Citi Center was told it would receive $632,000 from the state's new Cultural Facilities Fund to update the fire alarm systems at the Shubert Theatre and add accessible bathrooms at the Wang Theatre. Last year, the grant had been tabled over concerns about the center's spending practices.

Geoff Edgers can be reached at gedgers@globe.com. For more on the arts, visit boston.com/ae/ theater_arts/exhibitionist.