Circo de Nada presents a very limited engagement of Henry Four running April 3 and 4, 2015 at Brooklyn Arts Exchange (BAX), located at 421 Fifth Avenue between 7th and 8th Streets in Park Slope. Henry Four is adapted by
Amy Driesler and Nick Trotter from
William Shakespeare's Henry IV Parts One and Two. All performances will be at 8PM. BAX is easily accessible via the F or G trains to Fourth Avenue or the R train to 9th Street. For more information visit: http://nicktrotter.com/henry-four/
Shakespeare's Henry IV is a masterwork that remains extremely popular with modern audiences. This is because it tells a story everyone wants to hear: a prodigal prince (Prince Hal) deciding to grow up and become a king. Shakespeare also created one of his most beloved and unforgettable characters for this play: Sir John Falstaff.
This 90-minute adaptation will explore the complex relationships between the young Prince Hal, his father King Henry IV, Hal's rival Hotspur, and his mentor and surrogate father, the roustabout Falstaff. To examine the dualities and reflections in these roles,
Amy Driesler (The Queen's Company) will be playing both Hal and Hotspur, and Nick Trotter (Dell'Arte and NY Clown Theatre Festival) will play both King Henry and Falstaff. Laura Livingston (Metropolitan Playhouse and Freestyle Repertory Theatre) will direct and Jonathan Hicks (Titan Theatre Company), Jake Ottosen (Freestyle Rep), and Laura Valpey (Freestyle Rep) will complete the cast, all playing multiple roles. This ensemble-based approach to character and community is designed to accentuate Shakespeare's interplay of human relationships throughout all strata of society: from the tavern to the battlefield to the royal court. This is the course that Prince Hal must navigate, shadowing and synthesizing the influences of his father, Hotspur and Falstaff on his way to becoming King Henry V, one of England's greatest king.
The sets for the production will be shadow projections and puppetry designed by Nick Trotter.
As a director of scripted work, Laura Livingston has worked most extensively at the Obie award winning Metropolitan Playhouse in New York City, where her production of The Detour was named a 2013 Outstanding Revival of a Play by the New York Innovative Theatre Foundation. A founder of Freestyle Repertory Theatre and its Artistic Director, she has overseen the development of cutting edge improvisational theatre forms during the world wide explosion of the art form, leading her company to receive Young Audiences of New Jersey's first ever Artist of the Year Award. She trained as an actor at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in England, and with
Uta Hagen in New York City.
Amy Driesler is a New York actor. She is a regular member of both the critically acclaimed The Queen's Company and Judith Shakespeare Company. She was most recently seen as Leander in QC's production of Sir Patient Fancy and as Guiderius in JSC's Cymbeline. Regionally, she's worked at North Shore Music Theater, Actor's Theater of Louisville and Barter Theater, among others. She co-stars in several award-winning short films including Hens and Chicks (screened at over 100 festivals worldwide) and Elliot King is Third directed by Rose Troche (The L Word). She also co-stars in the web series The Chanticleer.
Nick Trotter has an MFA (2009) from the Dell'Arte International School of Physical Theatre. He specializes in Clown, Bouffon, Commedia, and puppetry and is a noted mask and prosthetic designer. Based in Denver, Colorado he performs as a clown, improviser and comedian. He is a member of the comedy duo Third Base! with Jerry
Lee Wallace. Their production Myths of the Plastic Age has been entertaining audiences in northern California since 2009. With the theatre/music group Bonejesters, which he co-founded with David Leicht, he performed the original show Bonejesters in 2000 at LaMama ETC in New York, and later that year in Gogol's The Nose at
HERE Arts Center. Their other original repertoire includes Round and Obscurity Knocks. As his clown Ferdinand the Magnificent, he toured Chiapas, Mexico in January 2008 with Rudi Galindo and Clowns Without Borders.
Circo de Nada is a theatre, puppetry and music project led by Nick Trotter. We produce unconventional performances and take them to wherever the people are: schools, churches, theaters--even the streets.
