Outspoken: Shakespeare in Shackles will premiere at Studio C Artists on Hollywood’s Theatre Row September 25, 2015. Written by Blaire Baron Larsen, Outspoken was workshopped in 2014 at the Los Angeles Drama Club, where Larsen serves as Artistic Director. From there, Michael Sonntag of Studio C invited a partnership so the play could be further developed under director Esdras Toussaint.
The play was inspired by one of London’s notorious medieval prisons, one which was situated around the corner from the original Globe Theatre. In Medieval London, mothers were tossed in the Clink alongside murderers, their children sent out to beg for money to pay the Jailor. In the mix were drunks, debtors, priests, political dissidents – anyone caught speaking against the Powers that Be.
Characters from Shakespeare’s canon (crossing the time/space continuum) come together in Outspoken as the play explores themes of classism and oppression using humor, compassion and camaraderie. Each character grows to understand their fellow prisoners as they re-enact the defining moment (in the actual Shakespeare play) that put them here – usually because they were too… outspoken.
Falstaff, Doll Tearsheet, Joan of Arc, the ghosts of Juliet and Hamlet, and less celebrated characters such as Kent (King Lear) and Paulina (Winter’s Tale) and Jack Cade (Henry VI) attempt to stay alive in the story. If a prisoner cannot pay the Jailor, they are thrown in the “Hole” to die unless and until their fee is covered.
The international cast includes Anniwaa Buachie, J. Bailey Burcham, Michael Edelstein, Will Gressman, Juliette Millar (age 13 as Juliet), Brandon Nagle, Kila Packett, Julia Walker-Wyson, Edmund Wyson, and the author, Blaire Baron Larsen.
The 75-minute play runs Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm. For more about Los Angeles Drama Club go www.losangelesdramaclub.com
OUTSPOKEN: SHAKESPEARE IN SHACKLES
September 25 – October 17, 2015
Studio C Artists/Los Angeles Drama Club
6448 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90038
Tickets: outspoken.studiocartists.com
Shakespeare in LA 