Shakespeare's Loudmouths Speak Out on Hollywood's Theatre Row
OUTSPOKEN: SHAKESPEARE IN SHACKLES will make its national debut on Hollywood's Theatre Row at Studio C Artists on September 25th, 2015, with a large cast playing Shakespeare's most gregarious characters from multiple plays in the Canon. Penned by Blaire Baron Larsen (The Milk Meetings), OUTSPOKEN was workshopped last year at the famed Los Angeles Drama Club, where Larsen serves as Artistic Director. There, the piece was spotted by Michael Sonntag from Studio C, who invited a partnership so the play could be further developed under director Esdras Toussaint. The international theatre- based cast includes (in alphabetical order) Anniwaa Buachie, J. Bailey Burcham, Michael Edelstein, Will Gressman, Juliette Millar (age 13 as Juliet), Brandon Nagle, Kila Packett, Julia Walker-Wyson, Edmund Wyson, and the author, Blaire Baron Larsen. More details and cast/crew bios and photos are available on the show website - outspoken.studiocartists.com.
OUTSPOKEN was inspired by London's notorious medieval prisons, one which was situated around the corner from the original Globe Theatre. In Medieval London - mothers were tossed in the Clink alongside murderers, their children sent out to beg for money to pay the Jailor. In the mix were drunks, debtors, priests, political dissidents - anyone caught speaking against the Powers that Be.
OUTSPOKEN has - with the Clink as the backdrop of its world - brought in a variety of Shakespeare characters from the Canon (crossing the time/space continuum) to explore themes of classism and oppression - while using humor, compassion and camaraderie. Each character grows to understand their fellow prisoners as they re-enact the defining moment (in the actual Shakespeare play) that put them here - usually because they were too... outspoken.
This spicy combination of characters - Falstaff, Doll Tearsheet, Joan of Arc, the ghosts of Juliet and Hamlet, the less celebrated "D-lister" characters: Kent (King Lear) and Paulina (Winter's Tale) and Jack Cade (Henry VI) - make for fireworks but they come together to stay alive: if a prisoner cannot pay the Jailor, they are thrown in the "Hole" to die unless and until their fee is covered.
Based in Los Angeles, Studio C Artists (studiocartists.com) is a production, casting, and arts education company founded by director John Coppola and producer Michael Sonntag. The company is currently completing an extended run of Ms. Larsen's last play, The Milk Meetings, and OUTSPOKEN is the fourth show in their 2015 season. The Los Angeles Drama Club, helmed by Ms. Larsen and Julia Walker- Wyson, is growing in notoriety as the best "School for Shakespeare" in the country.
The running schedule for OUTSPOKEN: SHAKESPEARE IN SHACKLES is as follows: Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00PM from September 25th through October 17th. Approximate running time is 75 minutes. The ticket price is $20.00 for general admission ($15.00 for early bird within 24 hours of the performance), and reservations can be made by visiting outspoken.studiocartists.com. Studio C Artists is located at 6448 Santa Monica Blvd., on Theatre Row, in Hollywood, CA.
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