Theatre Arts

The Book of Will

“Imagine a world without Macbeth, The Tempest, Twelfth Night, Taming of the Shrew or Julius Caesar. Before the publishing of Shakespeare’s anthologized plays in Folio format in 1623, these plays and many others had never appeared in print. Once the actors who originated these roles – and then anyone who remembered seeing them – had died, they risked being completely forgotten.

 

 

 

Directed by Bruce McLeod

November 4-21

Lohman Theatre

 

 

 

 

Performances

Friday, November 5th - 8pm, Preview performance

Saturday, November 6th - 8pm, Opening night!

Thursdays, November 11th & 18th at 7:30 pm

Fridays, November 12th & 19th at 8:00 pm

Saturdays, November 13th & 20th at 8:00 pm

Sundays, November 14th & 21st at 2:00 pm

 

Cast

Henry Condell	Mike Rhone
John Heminges	Tony Silk
Rebecca Heminges	Carla Befera
Elizabeth Condell	Eiko Yamamoto
Anne Hathaway	Gwendolynne Wagner
Lady Emilia Lanier	Sara Dean
Edward Burbage, William Jaggard	John Musgrave
Alice Heminge	Lauren D'Ambrosio
Isaac Jaggard	Steve Allhoff
Ben Johnson	Jason Morley
Hamlet, Marcus, Ensemble 1	Olivia Spreen
Compositor, Ensemble 2	Giovanni Garcia
Susannah, Ensemble 3	Sydney Harmon
Burbage, Jaggard understudy	Leslie Newport

 

Following the death of iconic actor Richard Burbage, and still reeling from Shakespeare’s death three years earlier, the surviving senior members of the King’s Men acting company realize that without a herculean effort to amass the various scraps of surviving manuscripts, sides and prompt books, the works of Shakespeare could be lost to time entirely except for the unauthorized and inferior printings of a handful of his plays. The story of this compilation is brought to life.… in Lauren Gunderson’s vibrant play, The Book of Will.”

-John Geoffrion, DC Theatre Scene, 2017

 “[Gunderson] has peopled the stage with lively, historically based characters…She paints a vivid portrait of the times in language sometimes formal, sometimes poetic and often…contemporary…She also gives a real feel for theater life and what it means to be an actor; you sense this is a work of both scholarship and love…[THE BOOK OF WILL] serves as homage to those who sacrificed to make the first folio happen and to Shakespeare’s magnificent words.” —Westword (Denver, CO).