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The Shakespeare Conference: SHK 18.0020  Thursday, 11 January 2007

From: 		Hardy M. Cook <editor@shaksper.net>
Date: 		Thursday, January 11, 2007
Subject: 	King Lear, Starring André De Shields

http://www.playbill.com/news/article/104782.html

Playbill News: King Lear, Starring André De Shields, Plays D.C.'s Folger 
Jan. 11-Feb. 18

King Lear, Starring André De Shields, Plays D.C.'s Folger Jan. 11-Feb. 18
By Kenneth Jones
January 11, 2007


André De Shields is the mad King Lear in a Washington, D.C., run of the 
Shakespeare tragedy, starting Jan. 11 at the Folger Theatre.

The production is co-produced by Folger and The Classical Theatre of 
Harlem, as part of the Shakespeare in Washington" festival that includes 
many D.C. troupes.

Directed by Classical Theatre of Harlem co-founder Alfred Preisser, Lear 
will play through Feb. 18.

"Ambition and jealousy rend the peace of family and of kingdom when an 
aging monarch gives up his throne and divides his land among his 
daughters," according to Folger notes. "King Lear explores some of the 
central questions of mankind's existence: destiny, love and duty, 
friendship and betrayal, leadership and loyalty, and the inevitability 
of a life nearing its end. Equal parts intimate domestic drama and 
explosive political commentary, King Lear is Shakespeare at his most 
poetic, powerful, and profound."

"This production of King Lear is based on the idea that the play is 
essentially a fairy tale, a fairy tale in which Lear's family is 
analogous to the universe," said director Preisser in a statement.  "The 
same forces of creation and destruction that exist in the world of 
nature are at work in the family as well, with Lear literally facing 
nature and issuing it orders, as he has been doing with his children. 
Lear learns, as most of us do at one point or another, that there are 
serious limitations and consequences to ordering around either of these 
parties."

The world of ancient Mesopotamia in the time of The Code of Hammurabi 
(1800 BC) is the director's "jumping off point for costume, law, and 
societal structure."

He said, "We are placing the story in a Middle Eastern world where the 
legal idea of 'an eye for an eye' was first put to paper." Immediately 
prior to its Washington, DC presentation, this co-production of King 
Lear played at The Classical Theatre of Harlem in New York and at the 
Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in Miami.

De Shields received Tony Award nominations for his performances in The 
Full Monty and Play On!. Also on Broadway, he appeared in Ain't 
Misbehavin', The Wiz, and Mark Medoff's Prymate. De Shields previously 
collaborated with Alfred Preisser at The Classical Theatre of Harlem in 
Caligula and Derek Walcott's Dream on Monkey Mountain (Audelco Award for 
Leading Actor in a Drama).  Lear's daughters are played by Christina 
Sajous (Cordelia), Chantal Jean-Pierre (Goneril) and Deidra LaWan 
Starnes (Regan).  The cast also includes Harold Surratt as Gloucester; 
Ty Jones as Gloucester's illegitimate son, Edmund; Danyon Davis as 
Edgar, Gloucester's other son; Jerome Preston Bates plays nobleman Kent; 
Ken Schatz is Lear's ever-faithful Fool; Francis Mateo as Cornwall; Todd 
Scofield as Albany; Ian Lockhart as France; Zuanna Sherman as Oswald; 
and Duane Allen as Burgundy. JJ Area and Shayshahn MacPherson round out 
the cast as knights, messengers and musicians.  The creative team 
includes scenic designer Troy Hourie, costume designer Kimberly Glennon 
and lighting designer Aaron Black.

For more information, visit www.folger.edu/theatre.

_______________________________________________________________
S H A K S P E R: The Global Shakespeare Discussion List
Hardy M. Cook, editor@shaksper.net
The S H A K S P E R Web Site <http://www.shaksper.net>

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