Vermont Shakespeare Company

Play Explores Shakespeare, Essex Rebellion

Vermont Shakespeare Company is presenting WILL, a new play in development about William Shakespeare, in a staged reading Dec. 6 at 7 p.m. at the Off Center for the Dramatic Arts in Burlington.

The play was originally a screenplay written by Vermont-based writer Jon Glascoe. After he met the creative team of Vermont Shakespeare Company in the summer of 2012, he has been developing the script into a play. The goal is to debut WILL as a full production in Vermont and follow that with a theatrical run in New York City.

WILL is a partially fictionalized chronicle of Shakespeare's experiences during the period in his life when he was about to write Hamlet. It was the eve of the Essex Rebellion, a plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth, for which Shakespeare was questioned for participating in inciting the rebellion. Glascoe's play offers an unflinching exploration of the era's political unrest and royal influence as well as the personal pain and artistic dreams of the man we have come to know as the greatest playwright of all time.

The staged reading is being directed by Vermont Shakespeare Company Executive Director John Nagle and features Eric Sheffer-Stevens as William Shakespeare; he was most recently seen as Edmund in Public Theater's King Lear with John Lithgow at The Delacorte Theatre in New York. Other cast members are Kassandra Bell, Bruce Campbell, Garrett Kimberly, Jena Necrason, Molly Pietz Walsh, Scott Renzoni, Mark Roberts, Mary-Kate Scanlon, Paul Schnabel, Craig Wells, and Ruth Wallman.

The Off Center for the Dramatic Arts is at 294 North Winooski Ave, Suite 116C, Burlington. Tickets are $15. For more information and reservations, call 877-874-1911.

December 2, 2014

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