THE BOOK OF WILL Comes to PCPA This Month

William Shakespeare is dead. Bad Hamlet knock-offs and children’s acting troupes litter the stages of Elizabethan London. And the King’s Men are running out of time. Rooted in real events, The Book of Will is the witty and wonderful battle of how the Bard’s legacy came to be. Sure to be loved by Shakespeare fans and skeptics alike. Playing at the Marian Theatre August 17th through the 26th and ending the 59th season in Solvang Festival Theater August 31st through September 10th.

The Book of Will is an unforgettable true story centered around the first collection of the works of William Shakespeare. The play takes place in London over 1619 – 1623 and follows the artists, colleagues, rivals, and real-life friends of William Shakespeare who were determined to protect and preserve his poetry and legacy.

Lauren Gunderson once said in an interview about her play The Book of Will: “We know that Shakespeare’s friends collected his plays and published them in the first folio, but most of us don’t really know how that came to be and how complicated and exacting and surprising and riveting the process actually was. And in many ways, the events that unfolded to make the first folio possible were like a great Shakespeare play!” That great play has, indeed, come to fruition in The Book of Will. It premiered at the Denver Theatre Center in 2017, won the Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, 2018 and has been moving and delighting audiences across the country and internationally ever since.

Director Emily Trask notes “Good friends are behind all good stories. And good stories make for good lives.” In that spirit, in lieu of sharing my own thoughts, I defer to the men, the friends, who knew Shakespeare and his work best, and who are so beautifully, humorously, and humanly brought to life again in Lauren Gunderson’s The Book of Will.”

The creative team includes Emily Trask* as the Director, Jason Bolen as the Scenic Designer, Pamela Shaw as the Costume Designer, Cody Soper as the Lighting Designer, Ben Lechtman as the Sound Designer, and Jack D. Myles* as the Stage Manager.

The cast includes Andrew Philpot* as John Heminges alongside his daughter in real life and on stage Isabella Lind as Alice/Susannah Shakespeare, Don Stewart* as Henry Condell, Kitty Balay* as Rebecca Heminges/Anne Hathaway, Polly Firestone Walker as Elizabeth Condell/ Emilia Lanier/Marcellus, Erik Stein* as Richard Burbage/William Jaggard/Sir Edward Dering, George Walker as Ben Johnson/Barman 2/Bernardo, Joshua Aran as Ralph Cane/Barman/Compositor/Francisco, Antwon Mason as Ed Knight/Isaac Jaggard, and Audrey Cizran as Marcus/Boy Hamlet/Crier/Horatio/Fruit Seller.

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