Introducing...

Photo Credit Jennifer Sanderson

Ever since we announced King Lear, people have been asking me privately, online and in person - who is going to play King Lear? Well, now you know.

The cast will also feature:
Chloe Oliver - Cordelia/The Fool

John Honeycutt - Gloucester

Barrett - Regan

Does this sound exciting? There's time to audition to be a part of this merry (well not so merry) adventure! We're holding auditions for the rest of the cast, more information here!

I'm incredibly pleased to be working with Julie. Julie was in South Stream's second production (and the first play I directed) Seascape. She has also appeared more recently in this doesn't end well and Twelfth Night. I am honored to be bringing her Lear to the stage this Spring. 

In addition to working with Julie as part of South Stream, she and I have worked together on many projects with other area theatres. And it was because of that, surprisingly, that this production came about (at least in part). While we were back stage as part of the cast of a reading for the Carolina Playwrights Lab, Julie told me a conversation she had had with her daughter Chloe, where they were (probably half jokingly) talking about being in King Lear together, and my name had come up as someone who might produce it. Little did she know - I was actually looking for an idea for a show to produce in the Spring. 

I had talked with The Ridge not too long before. They were very pleased with our production of Twelfth Night, and were interested in our producing there again. I was very pleased with that production as well, but producing requires a LOT of work, and stress, and time, so when I do produce a show- it has to be something I am excited about doing and think is worth the effort (thus the rather intermittent production schedule for South Stream). I never produce a show just to fill a time slot. I agreed on a general time which would fit the schedule of both The Ridge and South Stream, but I did tell them that I didn't have a show yet, and I wasn't sure if I would. 

But this idea! Well I love working with Julie both as an actor and as a person. The idea of her playing Lear - it is a demanding part but she absolutely had that in her, and the idea of her taking on that challenge was exciting to me both as an artist and as an audience member. I'd pay to see that! And the idea of her actual daughter playing Cordelia... well that brought it to a whole new level. Chloe is a fantastic actor in her own right, and the dynamic of the two of them working together was something I wanted to explore. 

There was one thing I was very interested in as a director though. The characters of Cordelia and The Fool are never on stage together, and it is often stated in material about the play that the two roles may have been double cast originally (both The Friendly Shakespeare and the introduction of my copy of the New Cambridge edition of King Lear suggest the possibility). But I had never seen this done in performance. The possibility of the doubling intrigued me. Both Cordelia and The Fool are characters who speak the truth to Lear. What if Cordelia stayed in Lear's mind, taunting him, nagging him, confronting him with his folly; as symptom and cause of his further descent into madness? And then, the storm passes, the Fool vanishes from the play - replaced again by his returning daughter. I knew if I was going to direct Lear, this is something I'd want to attempt. And Chloe is an artist with the deftness of craft and range to be able to pull it off. 

So - that's the story so far. Our cast also includes my co-producer John Honeycutt as Gloucester and long time South Stream veteran Barrett as Regan. 

Does this sound exciting? Come join us!