How Shakespeare Won the West
Play Description
The play tells the story of a ragtag troupe of actors as they head West during the Gold Rush, seeking fortune and fame and performing Shakespeare for enthusiastic ’49ers. But with stiff competition, romantic entanglements, and an Indian chief who sees himself in King Lear, their ambitious cross-country adventure is complicated by the teeming challenges and glories of the new American frontier. Embracing elements of Shakespearean comedy and American vaudeville, HOW SHAKESPEARE WON THE WEST is a jubilant celebration of the human spirit.
Production Info
Cast: 13 total (4 female, 9 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
- Reviews
- About the Author(s)
- About the Book
- Special Notes
- Productions
Press Quotes
“Engaging, energetic, amusing, and clearly in love with the art of telling stories onstage … The mix of laughter and tears feels right for the ridiculous but touching tale of a ragtag group of theatrical journeymen and has-beens who, unable to find work in New York and hearing rumors of Gold Rush riches, form a stage troupe and head west. The opening scenes in New York, which have the actors gathering in a tavern and trading stories of shows they’ve endured — from playing third banana to a pair of screeching child stars doing bad Shakespeare to carrying out schemes for P T Barnum — are both hilarious and based, more or less loosely, in historical fact. Funny as they are, they also make it clear just why these people are desperate enough to strike off into the wilderness, leaving everything but their vague dreams of stardom behind. The New York theater scene of the 1800s that Nelson pains so vividly is a free-for-all, and perhaps less a wilderness than the one they’re headed to. These early scenes introduce the plays central structural device, which is a key part of its charm. All the characters take turns serving as narrator, sometimes interrupting or correcting or embellishing each other’s stories, and as one recalls an incident, others act it out. This makes for a vivid and truly playful atmosphere onstage, one that celebrates the imaginative power of acting by — well, by acting. What’s most rewarding about HOW SHAKESPEARE WON THE WEST is the lively collaborative spirit that this structure creates. We’re getting to know Nelson’s characters through their stories, which they’re at once telling and living … This sprawling, lively tale of wild spirits in the Wild West feels fresh, stimulating, and American in the best way.” —Louise Kennedy, The Boston Globe
“A rollicking history lesson on American expansion, a celebration of this country’s long love affair with Shakespeare, a chronicle of the can-do pioneering spirit and a valentine to the transformative powers of the theater.” —Frank Rizzo, Variety
Author(s)
Richard NelsonRichard Nelson's plays include the four-play series, THE APPLE FAMILY (THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING, SWEET AND SAD, SORRY, REGULAR SINGING (Nominated for Outstanding Play in Drama Desk Awards 2014; Public Theater, 2010 – 2013), NIKOLAI AND THE OTHERS (Lincoln Center Theater, 2013), FAREWELL TO THE THEATRE (Hampstead Theatre, 2012), HOW SHAKESPEARE WON THE WEST, (Huntington Theater, 2008), CONVERSATIONS AT TUSCULUM (Public Theater, 2008), FRANK'S HOME (Goodman Chicago, Playwrights Horizons, 2007), RODNEY'S WIFE (Playwrights Horizons, 2004), WHERE I COME FROM (National Theatre Connections), MADAME MELVILLE (which ran in the West End starring Macaulay Culkin and Irene Jacob and opened in May 2001 Off-Broadway); GOODNIGHT CHILDREN EVERYWHERE (winner of Olivier Award for Best New Play, 2000), KENNETH'S FIRST PLAY (with Colin Chambers, RSC), THE GENERAL FROM AMERICA (at the RSC and the Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York), NEW ENGLAND (RSC and Manhattan Theater Club), MISHA'S PARTY (with Alexander Gelman, RSC and Williamstown Theater Festival), TWO SHAKESPEAREAN ACTORS (Tony nomination for Best Play, RSC and Broadway), COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF JAPAN (RSC Barbican), SOME AMERICANS ABROAD (Olivier nomination, Best Comedy; RSC, Lincoln Center and Broadway), LEFT, BETWEEN EAST AND WEST (Hampstead), PRINCIPIA SCRIPTORAE (winner of Time Out Award, RSC and Manhattan Theater Club), THE RETURN OF PINOCCHIO, AN AMERICAN COMEDY, BAL, CONJURING AN EVENT, RIP VAN WINKLE, JUNGLE COUP, THE KILLING OF YABLONSKI, THE VIENNA NOTES (Obie Award). His musicals include JAMES JOYCE'S THE DEAD (starring Christopher Walken and Blair Brown; Playwrights Horizons, Belasco Theatre, Broadway, Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, Kennedy Center, Washington; for which he received a Tony Award in 2000 for Best Musical Book), CHESS (the book for the Broadway musical), PARADISE FOUND (dir: Harold Prince and Susan Strohman), MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE (with Ricky Ian Gordon; Playwrights Horizons), UNFINISHED PIECE FOR A PLAYER PIANO (with Peter Golub). His translations and adaptations include TYNAN starring Corin Redgrave (with Colin Chambers, RSC and West End), LOLITA with Brian Cox (National), Molnar's THE GUARDSMAN (Kennedy Center), Carriere's THE CONTROVERSY (Public Theater), Fo's ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST (Broadway), Strindberg's THE FATHER with Frank Langella (Broadway) and MISS JULIE (Yale Rep), Beaumarchais' THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (the Guthrie and Broadway); Molière's DON JUAN, Ibsen's WILD DUCK and ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, Pirandello's ENRICO IV, Goldoni's IL CAMPIELLO, Erdmann's THE SUICIDE. With the esteemed translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, he was co-translated Chekhov's THE CHERRY ORCHARD, Gogol's THE INSPECTOR, Turgenev's A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY and Bulgakov's DON QUIXOTE. Films: Hyde Park on Hudson, staring Bill Murray and Laura Linney (Dir: Roger Michell), Ethan Frome, starring Liam Neeson (Dir: John Madden); Sensibility and Sense, staring Elaine Stritch and Jean Simmons (Dir: David Jones). Television: The End of a Sentence with Edward Herrmann (Dir: David Jones). Radio Plays include: HYDE PARK ON HUDSON, LANGUAGES SPOKEN HERE (Giles Cooper Award), EATING WORDS (Giles Cooper Award), ADVICE TO EASTERN EUROPE, AN AMERICAN WIFE (all BBC).
Special Notes
If original stage producers credits appear in bold below, all licensees are required to include them in the following form on the title page in all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play and in all advertising in which the full cast appears in size of type not less than ten percent (10%) of the size of the title of the Play:
HOW SHAKESPEARE WON THE WEST was originally produced by the
Huntington Theatre Company, Boston, Massachusetts
Peter DuBois, Artistic Director/Michael Maso, Managing Director
In addition, the following must appear within all programs distributed in connection with performances of the Play:
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypub.com
Related Plays
$15.00
Play Description
A Play with Music — the music of Frederic Chopin. George Sand had many lovers — but the one to whom she was most attached, and who almost ruined her life, was Frederic Chopin. His illness and dependency, the rivalries of two artists living under the same roof, the conflicting demands of two careers, all these batter the relationship. But most damaging is what the affair does to her family. Sand is hailed as an icon of female liberation. In GEORGE AND FREDERIC we see what can be the consequences of that liberation. Her rebellious daughter, Solange, embraces the tenets of feminism as an excuse for wild behavior, eventually causing the final rift between her mother and her mother’s lover. To assert his own creativity in this maelstrom, Maurice, George’s doting and doted-upon son, creates puppets of each member of this explosive ménage, puppets who, throughout the play, comment wryly on all the heated goings-on with humor, irony, and wit.
Production Info
Cast: 6 total (2 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 125 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
Play Description
A husband and wife stay together by force of habit, their relationship based on nothing solid. The wife’s aggression and bitterness and the husband’s selfishness and irresponsibility are revealed, and their ferocious animosity unleashes such powerful comedy that it obscures the underlying darkness.
Production Info
Cast: 4 total (2 female, 2 male)Short Comedy (about 60 minutes)
Single Set
Period Costumes
$0.00–$15.95
Play Description
Based on the classic novella, this original adaptation takes you to the dismal streets of London in the 1860s, where societal pressures silence a gentle doctor's questions about the nature of morality. As the pressure intensifies, Dr Jekyll takes matters into his own hands. However, things take an eerie turn when his experiment takes on a life of its own. Will his efforts save the world, or will they destroy all that he holds dear? After all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Production Info
Cast: 16 total (7 female, 9 male, flexible casting, bit parts)Full Length Comedy (about 80 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
Play Description
Veteran journalist Ambrose Bierce, whose wit is as sharp as a scalpel, is sent by yellow journalist William Randolph Hearst to the Pacific Western Railroad, the symbol of big business corruption at the turn of the century. Bierce has his hands full, not only with bought-off senators and railroad goons but with a son who has a dangerous proclivity for the ladies and a weariness with his incessant battle against “goodness.”
Production Info
Cast: 9 total (3 female, 6 male)Full Length Comedy (about 85 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$15.00
Play Description
Set in Denmark in the early 1890s, Nina, the Snow Queen, has migrated south yet once again to find her “boy” for the season. Upon running into Christian, she chooses him and whisks him away up north for the winter. But relationships are never that easy, and even though Nina has all the glitz and glamour on her side, as the winter draws to an end and spring appears, Analiese, the young heroine, journeys north to find her love. Thus a timeless tale wrought with danger, adventure, and love, THE SNOW QUEEN is a fairytale for adults who still believe in magic. Based on the classic Hans Christian Anderson story.
Production Info
Cast: 7 total (3 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 60 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$0.00–$15.00
Play Description
Based on the classic novella, this original adaptation takes you to the dismal streets of London in the 1860s, where societal pressures silence a gentle doctor's questions about the nature of morality. As the pressure intensifies, Dr Jekyll takes matters into his own hands. However, things take an eerie turn when his experiment takes on a life of its own. Will his efforts save the world, or will they destroy all that he holds dear? After all, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Production Info
Cast: 2 total (1 female, 1 male)Full Length Comedy (about 80 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
$0.00–$15.00
Play Description
The title character, based on a legendary Norwegian folk hero, is a rogue who is saved by the love of a woman. Peer Gynt is a charming but arrogant peasant youth who leaves his widowed mother in order to seek his fortune. Confident of success, he has one disastrous adventure after another. In one, he attends the wedding of the wealthy young woman he himself might have married. There he meets Solveig, who falls in love with him. He impulsively abducts the bride from her wedding celebration and subsequently abandons her. Peer Gynt embarks on a series of fantastic voyages around the world, finding wealth and fame but never happiness. Finally, as an old, disillusioned man, he returns to Norway, where Solveig, ever faithful, welcomes him lovingly, and he is redeemed.
Production Info
Cast: 28 total (10 female, 18 male)Full Length Drama (about 160 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
“ANTONY is not a melodrama, ANTONY is not a tragedy, ANTONY is not a stage play. ANTONY is an acting-out of love, jealousy and anger in five acts.” —Alexandre Dumas (père)
Production Info
Cast: 14 total (6 female, 9 male, extras)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
KRAKEN explores the true-life encounter between legendary American novelists Herman Melville and Nathaniel Hawthorne in 1856. Melville, in the midst of a spiritual journey to the Holy Land, stops to visit with his old friend Hawthorne, now the American consul in Liverpool. As they spend the evening together, they discuss and confront their, fears, failures, things of this world and the next, books and publishers, and all possible and impossible matters.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (3 female, 5 male)Full Length Drama (about 100 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
Adapted from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, MONSTER takes a disturbing yet poignant look at one man’s obsession with creating life and the destructive after effects of abandoning his creation.
Production Info
Cast: 8 total (4 female, 4 male)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Multiple Sets
Period Costumes
$15.00–$15.95
Play Description
A groundbreaking masterpiece of the modern theatre. The play tells the tale of a poor soldier, a barber in the army, who is overwhelmed by the military and forced to become a human guinea pig for quasi-medical research. Consumed by jealousy over his lover’s infidelity, Woyzeck is driven to despair, to madness, and to murder. Poignant and grotesque, insightful and all-too-human, the play broke every theatrical mold of its time, paving the way for theatre as we know it today.
Production Info
Cast: 16 total (4 female, 12 male, doubling, bit parts, children, extras)Full Length Drama (about 120 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes