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Playwright Amy Freed says that Titus Andronicus “operates on a compelling elemental and mythic plane” that begins “in a world of pre-linguistic primitivism—he’s a tired-out, used-up killing machine who only finds his voice as a human being when his dearest child is mutilated and returned to him.” It is a play, she says, that is “beset by disorder, unclean breaks, falls into horrible holes, and extraordinary strokes of brilliance.”
Playwright
Amy Freed
Amy Freed is the author of Shrew! ,The Monster Builder, Restoration Comedy, The Beard of Avon, Freedomland, Safe in Hell, The Psychic Life of Savages, You, Nero and other plays. Her work has been produced at South Coast Repertory Theater, Seattle Repertory, American Conservatory Theater, Yale Rep, California Shakespeare Theater, Berkeley Rep, the Goodman, Playwrights’ Horizons, New York Theater Workshop, Woolly Mammoth, Arena Stage and other theaters. Playwriting awards include Charles MacArthur Award, Joseph Kesselring Prize, LA and Bay Area Critics’ Circle Awards, Pulitzer Prize Finalist (Freedomland). She currently serves as Artist-in-Residence at Stanford University in the Theater and Performance Studies Department.
Dramaturg
Lezlie C. Cross
Lezlie C. Cross is an expert in the text and production of Shakespeare’s plays across time and geography. Currently she is an Assistant Professor at the University of Portland where she directs for the program as well as teaching dramaturgy, playwriting, and theatre history. Her professional dramaturgy work has been seen at regional theatres across America including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival, Nevada Conservatory Theatre, Cincinnati Shakespeare, Classic Stage Company, and Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. Her published articles and book reviews appear in Theatre History Studies, Theatre Annual, Shakespeare Bulletin, The Journal of American Drama and Theatre and Theatre Survey as well as the book projects The Encyclopedia of Modern Theatre; Women on Stage; Shakespeare Expressed: Page, Stage, and Classroom and Performing Objects and Theatrical Things. She is an Editorial Board member for Review: The Journal of Dramaturgy and an Advisory Board Member for the Shakespeare and Social Justice Series from Arden Bloomsbury. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Washington, her M.A. from the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, and her B.A. from Whitman College.
In Print
Titus Andronicus
Shakespeare’s tragic story of revenge is reimagined for the twenty-first century.
One of Shakespeare’s goriest plays, Titus Andronicus traces the fall of the Andronicus family in ancient Rome. Clinging to the ways of the past, Titus desperately seeks to remain loyal to the throne as his world crumbles around him. Amy Freed’s translation of Titus Andronicus is careful and meticulous, making small but mighty changes in moments that enhance the drama of each scene. Freed’s version gives this extraordinary play an even faster track on which to run.
