Jan McArt's Play Reading Series to Present A KING! A PLOT! A GUN! A SHOT! AND ALL THAT FOLLOWED (QUITE A LOT)

"The tale of an eighteenth century Scandinavian king may sound dull, but this bit of history feels more like something out of 'GAME OF THRONES.'"

So says award-winning South Florida playwright Tony Finstrom, whose new play 'A KING! A PLOT! A GUN! A SHOT! And All That Followed (Quite A Lot!)' will be presented as part of Jan McArt's New Play Readings at Lynn University on Halloween night.

"It's about a murder! At a masked ball! And I think the story's as treacherous and scandalous as anything that's been featured on that HBO series, thus far," he adds.

"Of course I happen to be Swedish. And Italian. And I've always loved history, especially when it's lurid. So I guess those are pretty much the reasons why I was drawn to write about the assassination of Sweden's King Gustav III.

"It took place at a masked ball in 1792, at the Royal Opera House of Stockholm. And the only time this story's been successfully dramatized was back in 1859, in Rome, when Giuseppe Verdi's opera 'A MASKED BALL' debuted, featuring a completely fictional love triangle at the center of the plot.

"I decided to set things straight with this new play of mine. We'll soon see how successful I've been at it."

Coincidentally the opera, also known as 'UN BALLO IN MASCHERA,' was presented in concert last year by the Miami Lyric Opera at Miami Beach's Colony Theatre, and will be produced as a full production this spring by the Florida Grand Opera in Miami at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, and also in Fort Lauderdale at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

"I don't just retell the story of the assassination, though," says Finstrom.

"I decided to have some fun with it, so my play opens on the day after Verdi's opera had its world premiere in Rome. We're in the Italian home of famed American actress Charlotte Cushman (a notorious lesbian, noted for playing men's roles) who, with her almost all-female household, reads through a new version of this story that claims to tell the shocking, unvarnished truth about that King, that masked ball, that assassination. And Charlotte, naturally, plays the part of the King!

"Cushman was a real person," he concludes. "And hugely famous in her day! How sad she's almost completely forgotten now. But mine is a play-within-a-play, so I get to tell her story, as well. And it's almost equally as shocking, in its own way."

The fully staged reading of this new dramedy will feature South Florida actors Barbara Bradshaw, Mike Westrich, Angie Radosh, Patti Gardner, Elizabeth Price, Meredith Bartmon and Jan McArt, under the direction of Wayne Rudisill, stage managed by Kristine Madden.

Jan McArt, Florida's First Lady of Theater, and head of theater development at Lynn University, has been guiding her award-winning play reading series to astonighting success for the past four years.

Her mission with this play reading program? To develop new commercially entertaining plays by Florida playwrights.

Each year four new plays are rehearsed and rewritten over a period of six days. Then, on the sixth evening, they get presented, fully staged, in the 750-seat Keith C. and Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Center on the Lynn campus, to an ever-growing, enthusiastic audience.

Of the past sixteen plays presented, six have gone on to full productions around Florida, and around the country, including one that's heading to New York next spring. They include: Dan Clancy's 'PROPOSITION 8,' which landed at the Desert Rose Playhouse in Rancho Mirage, CA, under the title 'POSTER BOYS' in the spring of 2014; Christopher Demos-Brown's 'CHILD'S PLAY,' which was presented at Miami's Zoetic Stage to great acclaim under the title 'STRIPPED' in the winter of 2015; Michael McKeever's 'DANIEL'S HUSBAND,' which wound up at Fort Lauderdale's Island City Stage in the summer of 2015, winning several Carbonell Awards including 'Best New Work,' and will be produced at New York's Primary Stages this spring; Stuart Meltzer's 'THE GOLDBERG VARIATIONS,' which will be produced this winter at Island City Stage; Dan Clancy's 'MIDDLETOWN,' which will arrive at the Boca West Theatre in December; Michael McKeever's 'FINDING MONA LISA,' which will be unveiled in Coral Gables at Actors' Playhouse next summer.

Upcoming plays to be presented during this 2016-17 Season include 'THE LONG REUNION' by Jack Gilhooey, directed by Peter Pileski, on January 23rd, 2017; 'LOVE AND OTHER UNNATURAL ACTS' by Don Webster, directed by Wayne Rudisill, on February 13th, 2017; and 'THE CAMP' by Michael McKeever, directed by Michael Leeds, on March 6th, 2017.

'A KING! A PLOT! A GUN! A SHOT! And All That Followed (Quite A Lot!)' a new play by Tony Finstrom, will be performed for one night only, on Halloween Mondayevening at 7:30 PM in the Keith C. & Elaine Johnson Wold Performing Arts Centerof Lynn University, at 3601 N. Military Trail, Boca Raton, FL 33431.

Tickets are $10 each (or still available at the Four-Play Series Discounted Price of $36), and may be purchased at the Lynn University box office, online at http://events.lynn.edu/upcoming/live-at-lynn/new-play-readings, or by calling 561-237-9000.