Big news today in the world of Shakespeare scholarship!!! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090309/ap_en_ot/eu_britain_shakespeare_portrait
March 09, 2009
February 26, 2009
Opening Night Friday, March 6!
“The Lost Shakespeare Play” makes its World Premiere at EP Theater on March 6
WHAT: The world premiere of The Lost Shakespeare Play, written by Chicago
playwright Dave Stinton and directed by Jen Ellison. Based on the true story of an eighteenth century theatrical scandal, The Lost Shakespeare Play tells the tale of 19-year-old William-Henry Ireland, who has uncovered what he claims is a lost play by William Shakespeare. The play, entitled Vortigern, causes a sensation in literary circles, and many - experts and laypeople alike - are utterly convinced of its authenticity. But Edmond Malone, the foremost Shakespeare scholar of the day, is not. Malone and Ireland square off onstage in this comedy, each pleading his case as opening night approaches. The show runs approximately 90 minutes with no intermission.WHERE: EP Theater, 1820 S. Halsted, Chicago, IL 60608 Parking available (street and lot); CTA accessible (Blue Line UIC-Halsted, bus lines #8 & #62)
Free designated parking lot behind the theater
Handicapped accessible
WHEN: Press opening on Friday, March 6, 2009, at 8:00pm (media invited to attend any performance)
Closes on March 22, 2009
Runs Thursdays at 7:00pm; Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm; Sundays at 2:00pm
TICKETS: To purchase tickets: 773-895-9935
$20 for regular single tickets
$15 for students (with valid ID)
$10 for Columbia College students (with valid ID)
Group rates for 10 and over available upon request.
STAFF: Dave Stinton (Playwright), Jen Ellison (Director), Abbie Colton (Producer), Mike Durst (Light Design), Emily Morgan DeAngelis (Costume Design), Molly K. Norris (Sound Design), Dianna Driscoll (Stage Manager), Shawn Quinlan (Costume Assistant)
CAST: Nick Vidal (William Henry Ireland), Kevin Gladish (
Media passes, photographs, interviews and additional materials are available upon request.
January 07, 2009
Our Cast!
I am most pleased to announce our cast!
Kerry Cahill
Clayton Faits
Kevin Gladish
Sean Patrick Leonard
Jack McCabe
Roxanne Saylor
Adam Weiler
Nick Vidal
And our amazing crew....
Dianna Driscoll - Stage Manager
Mike Durst - Light Design
Emily Morgan Deangelis - Costume Design
Shawn Quinlan - Costuming Assistant
Molly K. Norris - Sound Design
January 05, 2009
How 'The Lost Shakespeare Play' came to be written...
Dave Stinton explains the history of how his play came to be
It’s based on a true story from a couple centuries ago. I’ve been writing it, on and off, for about seven and a half years.
In summer of 2001, I went to the Stratford Festival of Canada. It was a relaxing week in an agonizingly quaint little Canadian town, with absolutely nothing on my schedule except a handful of plays.
I was very early to a matinee one day. So early that the theatre hadn’t opened yet. It was starting to drizzle, so I ducked into a used bookstore a block away.
There was a stack of dusty paperbacks just inside the door. On the top of this stack was a book that must have been about great hoaxes in history, or something like that. I picked it up and opened it to a random page and found a couple of paragraphs about William-Henry Ireland, a teenager who, in the 1790s, forged a series of Shakespearean documents.
He started off small (signatures, letters) and eventually worked his way up to a complete play, supposedly buried for 200 years. As suspicions arose, he even managed to forge evidence to support the play’s validity.
I thought, well, this should be my next play.
It wasn’t. Several other plays and playlets have been conceived, written, and performed since then. But The Lost Shakespeare Play has always been sitting there in the back of my brain, rearing up and making me feel guilty whenever something reminds me how long it’s been since I did any serious work on it.
Along the way, it has had an unstaged reading and a semi-staged reading, each with its own stack of notes and reactions from their respective audience members. Somewhere in a closet, I still have all the forms that viewers filled out, telling me what they liked and didn’t, what was clear and wasn’t. But the sad fact is, I don’t work well without a deadline.
My friend Abbie has been getting her Masters in Performing Arts Management, and she got the okay to produce my play as her thesis, which was excellent news. Further excellent news was my other brilliant friend Jen was available and willing to direct. Jen and I have collaborated together on a bunch of things, and I particularly love when she directs stuff that I’ve written. (One of the plays that had its entire lifespan during the writing of LSP is Let There Be Light, which Jen and I wrote together and she directed. It was one of my favorite writing experiences, and it went to the damn New York International Fringe Festival in 2004.)
November 21, 2008
Who is Jen Ellison?
She's our director! Check it:
Jen Ellison is the artistic director of WNEP Theater and had been performing, writing and directing in Chicago for 12 years. Directing credits include Hackneyed for the Collaboraction 2008 Sketchbook, That's What They Say and Tip the Band for WNEP's Raw series, Kerpatty's sketch show Funsplosion, and The Swan (with John Kahara) at Trap Door Theatre. Jen has also written and and directed Let There Be Light..! (Co-written with Dave Stinton) and Invasion of the Minnesota Normals, which had it's Chicago premiere with WNEP. Invasion of the Minnesota Normals was also produced by Buzzworks of Los Angeles in March 2008. Other writing and script development credits include The Armageddon Radio Hour (contributing writer), The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (contributing writer), Wise Blood (adaptation), Apocalypse (contributing writer), Lives of the Monster Dogs (adaptation). Jen also hosts a monthly writer's collective focusing on writing for the stage and for screen.November 18, 2008
Who is Dave Stinton?
You mean you don't know who Dave Stinton is? Check it!
Dave Stinton was the Playwright-in-Residence at Chicago's WNEP Theater from 2002 - 2006. There he wrote Let There Be Light..! (with Jen Ellison), which was selected for the 2004 New York International Fringe Festival and named one of the 5 best new plays of 2003 in New City.
Other works with WNEP include The Mysteries of Harris Burdick (co-written with Michael Ross, based on the children's book by Chris Van Allsburg); Statuette: A Hollywood Musical (with music by Jeffrey Hepker, based on the novel Best Actress); and Dirty Bible Stories (to which he contributed two short plays, "The Fig Tree" and "Josiah").
Who is Abbie Colton?
Good question! Here's a little biographical information about me!
I obtained a bachelor's in Theater from Michigan State University in 2001. After that, I was a freelance stage manager in the Bay Area, CA and a production assistant at Berkeley Reportory Theater. I've been in Chicago since 2003 and have worked with WNEP Theater and The Factory Theater in such esteemed roles as Stage Manager, Assistant Producer, Technical Director, and Production Manager. For the past few years, I've been slowly working towards a Masters in Performing Arts Management from Columbia College and with the completion of this show, I should have it! In May of 2008, I was honored to be accepted as a member of The Jeff Awards Committee. Since then I have been continually amazed by the exceptional work I see in Chicago theater night after night.
I first worked on this script as a stage manager for the 2005 workshop of Dave Stinton's The Lost Shakespeare Play. Now I'm thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Dave and Jen again to give this show the full production it so richly deserves.
-Abbie
November 17, 2008
Performance Dates!!
The Lost Shakespeare Play will be performed March 5 - 22 at EP Theater
November 13, 2008
AUDITIONS ON DECEMBER 6
AUDITIONS
Saturday, December 6
10am - 6pm
624 S. Michigan Ave. Room 709
Auditions by appointment only Contact Abbie Colton at 773 895 9935
Please prepare a 1.5 minute comedic monologue to be performed in a British dialect. May be a classical or contemporary piece. Cold readings may be done also.
CAST
William-Henry Ireland (19)
Edmond Malone (50)
John Phillip Kemble (39) - also Vortigern
Mr. Barrymore - also Baron, Aurelius, Shakespeare, Boswell (56)
Dorothea Jordan (44) - also Mrs. Williams, Flavia, Holmes, Barmaid
Mr. King - also Samuel Ireland, Constantius, Hengist
Mr. Caulfield - also John Jordan, Henry Pye (51), Pascentius
Mr. Whitfield - also Williams, Mr. H, Murderer, Messenger
Mrs. Siddons - also Sheridan
The Lost Shakespeare Play by Dave Stinton
THE LOST SHAKESPEARE PLAY (World Premiere!!)
Written by: Dave Stinton
Directed by: Jen Ellison
Produced by: Abbie Colton (in conjunction with EP Theater and Columbia College)
The Lost Shakespeare Play is based on the true story of a theatrical scandal that hit Richard Brinsley Sheridan's Drury Lane Theatre in the 1790s.
A document uncovered by 19-year-old William Henry Ireland is heralded as a lost play by William Shakespeare. The play, entitled Vortigern, causes a sensation in literary circles, and many - experts and laypeople alike - are utterly convinced of its authenticity.
But Edmond Malone, the foremost Shakespeare scholar of the day, is not.
Malone and Ireland square off onstage in this comedy, each pleading his case as opening night approaches.
This show is being produced as a Columbia College graduate thesis project in the department of Arts, Entertainment & Media Management. It will be performed at EP Theater in March of 2009. Rehearsals will begin in late December 2008 with table work. Rehearsals will take place at Columbia College.
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