King John - by William Shakespeare
A play based loosely on a real King presented in the style of your favorite soap opera.
Susan Lucci couldn't be here to accept this crown, but we do have some other rather melodramatic contenders. Will the King with Mommy issues keep the thrown or will the little boy who has a Mommy with issues steal it for himself. Come ready to laugh and cry and see a lot of beautiful people do some highly improbable things. If you feel like you need to wear your slippers and hold a channel changer in your hand for our Daytime TV inspired trip to the early 13th Century, we won't judge. If you come wanting to contest the crown...well, you might just find yourself part of the action.
Susan Lucci couldn't be here to accept this crown, but we do have some other rather melodramatic contenders. Will the King with Mommy issues keep the thrown or will the little boy who has a Mommy with issues steal it for himself. Come ready to laugh and cry and see a lot of beautiful people do some highly improbable things. If you feel like you need to wear your slippers and hold a channel changer in your hand for our Daytime TV inspired trip to the early 13th Century, we won't judge. If you come wanting to contest the crown...well, you might just find yourself part of the action.
GlasgowTuesday, October 14, 8:00 pm
Wednesday, October 15, 8:00 pm The Tron Theatre 63 Trongate Cast includes: Ciara Clifford, Amy Conway, Amy Drummond, Tommy Herbert, David Kirkwood, Camille Marmie, Alan McKenzie, Isobel McArthur, Eilidh McCormick, Ishbel McFarlane, Linda McLaughlin, Jessica Thigpen, Jason Vaughn, Clare Marcie Wilson 
ChicagoWednesday, November 20, 7:30 pm
The Globe Pub 1934 W Irving Park Road Cast: Molly Bunder, Mitch Conti, Nathan Drackett, Collin Geraghty, Nicole Goeden, Rachel Griesinger, Derek Jarvis, Jake Jones, Nathaniel Niemi, Benjamin Ponce, Chad Ramsey, Julia Stemper, Krista Taylor
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King John reigns again!
Cast includes: Sydney Ambos, Hasanah Brown, Todd Brown, Joel Collins, Susan Harrocks, Jim Lambert, Alexsia Patton, Benjamin Ponce, Jared Shofstall, Julia Stemper, Emily Thompson, Nico Wood
Carbondale Program available for download!
Pembroke and Salisbury revolt!
L to R: Derek Jarvis, Mitch Conti, Krista Taylor, Benjamin Ponce, Jake Jones, Rachel Griesinger
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about the play
King John is a character in Robin Hood. King John did sign the Magna Carta. King John was a bit of a Mama's boy. King John is also one of Shakespeare's rarely done plays that includes kidnapping, adultery, civil war, world war, poison and eye poking. We start with King John refusing to hand the crown to his nephew Arthur. We move to France where Arthur's mother Constance is convincing King Phillip to help contest the crown. We then have a war. Civil war, national war, religious war and more seem to break out at one point or another. We briefly think it will all stop as a marriage between the Dauphin (the next in line in France) and John's niece Blanche is conjured, but the Church and Constance will have none of it. With the former King's illegitimate son making snide side comments throughout, the country may never be the same. Of course, we in the 21st Century don't know it any differently, so come see why England is the way it is, in the mostly true tale of King John.
director's notes
Shakespeare's King John depicts the struggle for the crown of England between King John--who holds the crown at the opening of the play--and Arthur, the young son of John's dead older brother Geoffrey. The King of France takes on Arthur's case and France's son Louis the Dauphin soon decides to lay claim for the throne of England.
King John was described to me as a soap opera, and it's in this vein that I first read the play. Rather than directing King John as a history play, I decided to tackle it like the plot of a daytime soap. Family infighting, contesting wills, betrayal, attempted murder, faking one's own death, power struggles, arranged marriages, war--sounds like an episode of All My Children! Shakespeare's language is rich in melodrama, and instead of playing it straight I asked the actors to play it up (tell me Constance, Geoffrey's widow and Arthur's mother, isn't the Susan Lucci of the play, I dare you). The lines lend themselves just as well to comedy as they do to drama.
Stone Soup Shakespeare conducts gender-blind casting. In Shakespeare's time, all the roles were played by men. Though there are fewer parts for women in his plays, Shakespeare toys with ideas of femininity and female archetypes. Because Shakespeare had to write for an all male cast, each character has both a feminine and a masculine side. Some of the humor stems from the fact that the opposite sex was playing the role. Why not have a woman play a male role, especially if the lady does the male character justice? You will see women playing men and men playing women in our production.
I invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy our play along with your drink. Laugh, you're supposed to.
-Erin Dowdy
King John was described to me as a soap opera, and it's in this vein that I first read the play. Rather than directing King John as a history play, I decided to tackle it like the plot of a daytime soap. Family infighting, contesting wills, betrayal, attempted murder, faking one's own death, power struggles, arranged marriages, war--sounds like an episode of All My Children! Shakespeare's language is rich in melodrama, and instead of playing it straight I asked the actors to play it up (tell me Constance, Geoffrey's widow and Arthur's mother, isn't the Susan Lucci of the play, I dare you). The lines lend themselves just as well to comedy as they do to drama.
Stone Soup Shakespeare conducts gender-blind casting. In Shakespeare's time, all the roles were played by men. Though there are fewer parts for women in his plays, Shakespeare toys with ideas of femininity and female archetypes. Because Shakespeare had to write for an all male cast, each character has both a feminine and a masculine side. Some of the humor stems from the fact that the opposite sex was playing the role. Why not have a woman play a male role, especially if the lady does the male character justice? You will see women playing men and men playing women in our production.
I invite you to sit back, relax, and enjoy our play along with your drink. Laugh, you're supposed to.
-Erin Dowdy
about the Director
Erin Dowdy is excited to be involved with Stone Soup Shakespeare. She worked for 11 years in the press office of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. In 2005 she participated in the Astoria Playmaking Program at the Astoria Performing Arts Center where students learn to write their own plays and see their original works brought to life by professional actors and directors in a evening of staged readings. She received her B.A. in English and Drama from Kenyon College in Ohio and her Master's in Creative Writing from Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland.