A paranoid, selfish and unreliable monarch is overthrown. Sound familiar?
There’s something about William Shakespeare’s “Richard II” that resonated with African-American Shakespeare Company artistic director L. Peter Callender more than ever in recent years.
Make no mistake, this “modern verse translation” of Richard II by Naomi Iizuka, commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Play On! project, is Shakespearean to the core.
It can be tricky business, tinkering with the words of William Shakespeare. On one hand, let’s face it, his plays can be a real slog for those of us who are iambic pentameter-averse. On the other hand, c’mon: The dude was the Bard. They don’t give you a title like that if you are a hack.
The African-American Shakespeare Company production of Richard II, in a new Play On! translation by Naomi Iizuka, runs this weekend and next April 15-24, 2022, at the Marines Memorial Theatre in San Francisco. Director L. Peter Callender and star Lijesh Krishnan discuss the creation of this production.
al Shakes has announced they will produce two world premiere plays adapted from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and King Lear. The 48th season will begin with Romeo y Juliet running May 25–June 19, 2022 and conclude with Lear running September 7–October 2, 2022.
California Shakespeare Theater has two world premieres on its 2022 lineup, the Orinda theater company announced Monday, Dec. 20, and they’re both new Shakespeare adaptations.
