We Players to Present KING FOOL, 9/5-28

We Players (Artistic Director, Ava Roy; Managing Director, Lauren D. Chavez), will present an exciting and intimate new project called King Fool this fall. This newest site-integrated production will be shared with exclusive audiences at a variety of newly announced locations - both public and private. Adapted by John Hadden from Shakespeare's King Lear, the piece focuses on the inner and outer lives of the characters of the King and his daughter/fool. We Players' production runs September 5 - 28, 2014. Tickets are on sale now at www.WePlayers.org.

We Players embarks on a multi-year development with King Fool. The project will be integrated into several diverse locations: Battery Wallace - a late (1917-21) addition to the Endicott-period batteries at Fort Barry in the Marin Headlands; a stunning private residence in San Anselmo - which is set alongside a large nature preserve; and at various "undisclosed locations" in urban San Francisco.

Post-performance conversations provide integral information about the audience experience of the play and place and conversations will vary in tone from site to site and performance to performance.

The public discourse this fall will inform the future development of We Players' work and how the piece addresses the central themes of protection/destruction, death/loss, and grief/suffering.

At Battery Wallace, the post-performance conversations will feature a National Park Service Interpreter who will reference specific histories of the military sites in the Marin Headlands, which include WWI and WWII batteries and a Cold War Nike missile site. These conversations will more broadly explore death and loss via the lense of military activity.

At the San Anselmo performances, We Players invites professionals working in the field of dying and the alleviation of suffering to participate as respondents in our post-performance conversations. We look forward to learning what sharing our theatre piece inspires from those who encounter death and dying on a daily basis. We are asking our respondents to share a little of their story as well as specific techniques for healthy grieving.

At our various Undisclosed Locations, the post-performance conversations will engage a variety of urban communities who are in the midst of active (and in some instances, ongoing) conversation about death and loss. We look forward to exploring the role of art in catalyzing conversation on project themes amongst communities that aready have a wealth of knowledge and wisdom about aging, dying and living well.

We Players' King Fool performance is designed for intimate audiences, in part to support a conducive environment for audience members to actively engage in discussion with the performers and professionals who are intimate with the project themes. We Players aspires to provide a safe and supportive space to share and process feelings around death, loss and grief as we share our practice of engaging with art and community for greater understanding and healing.