March Madness means all attention goes to basketball and brackets, and while we love a good college game as much as the next person we think it's about time Shakespeare got in on the bracket fun too.
if you love brackets
if you love Shakespeare
or maybe if you are simply ready for a little madness
we bring you
the 2016 ELIZABETHAN GAMES
if you love brackets
if you love Shakespeare
or maybe if you are simply ready for a little madness
we bring you
the 2016 ELIZABETHAN GAMES
join the judges (or at least meet them)
Christina Casano: A Chicago based theater artist, Christina earned a BA in Theatre from Miami University and completed the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey's Summer Professional Training Program. Selected works include Belladonna Luna Sonata and These Saints Will Burn (The Plagiarists), Twelfth Night (CBD), Milk Like Sugar (The Yard + Raven Theatre), Owners (ITP), Macbeth and Angels in America (Miami University). She is a company member with The Plagiarists where she serves as the Resident Stage Manager, and is a company member with Crowded Bookshelf Dramatics. She writes for and is the assistant editor of Girls in Capes, a blog dedicated to women and minorities in geek and pop culture. As a Shakespearean actor, she has only played male roles. A self-proclaimed Slytherin, she was sorted into Gryffindor by Pottermore.
Erin Dowdy: Dowdy can still recite Macbeth's Witches' lines in her sleep and counts Richard III in her top 10 favorite things to read. She didn't know how funny Hamlet really was until she saw Mark Rylance play the Danish Prince at The Globe in 2000. She thanks Julia Stemper for introducing her to the soap opera King John when Dowdy directed the staged reading for Stone Soup in Chicago in 2013.
Emily Green: Emily has acted, directed and studied Shakespeare. She's also done a bit of newer work, so she has perspective. Impressed by blood, she is going into the judging with a keen eye for final death count - good luck comedies, amiright? Emily first joined Stone Soup on tour in 2015 when she played Dogberry/Hero in Much Ado About Nothing. She holds a BFA from Millikin University and and MFA from the University of Florida.
Ryan Nelson: Ryan is founder of the Shakespeare Reading Group (SRG). Since 2010, the SRG has led more than 175 readings of Shakespeare and other Renaissance plays in local libraries across southern Illinois. He obtained a master's degree in English Literature from Southern Illinois University in 2003.
Julia Stemper: Artistic Director of Stone Soup Shakespeare, she counts cheering on the SIU Salukis during March Madness even when they didn't make round 1 as some of the best non-theater memories ever and thus is delighted to finally have the Elizabethan Games to take part in. While true The Tempest is her favorite play in the canon she holds soft spots for...well...almost every one of them (from the opening speech of Henry V to the first meeting of Romeo and Juliet to Launce and is dog in The Two Gentlemen of Verona) so it truly is anyone's game!
Erin Dowdy: Dowdy can still recite Macbeth's Witches' lines in her sleep and counts Richard III in her top 10 favorite things to read. She didn't know how funny Hamlet really was until she saw Mark Rylance play the Danish Prince at The Globe in 2000. She thanks Julia Stemper for introducing her to the soap opera King John when Dowdy directed the staged reading for Stone Soup in Chicago in 2013.
Emily Green: Emily has acted, directed and studied Shakespeare. She's also done a bit of newer work, so she has perspective. Impressed by blood, she is going into the judging with a keen eye for final death count - good luck comedies, amiright? Emily first joined Stone Soup on tour in 2015 when she played Dogberry/Hero in Much Ado About Nothing. She holds a BFA from Millikin University and and MFA from the University of Florida.
Ryan Nelson: Ryan is founder of the Shakespeare Reading Group (SRG). Since 2010, the SRG has led more than 175 readings of Shakespeare and other Renaissance plays in local libraries across southern Illinois. He obtained a master's degree in English Literature from Southern Illinois University in 2003.
Julia Stemper: Artistic Director of Stone Soup Shakespeare, she counts cheering on the SIU Salukis during March Madness even when they didn't make round 1 as some of the best non-theater memories ever and thus is delighted to finally have the Elizabethan Games to take part in. While true The Tempest is her favorite play in the canon she holds soft spots for...well...almost every one of them (from the opening speech of Henry V to the first meeting of Romeo and Juliet to Launce and is dog in The Two Gentlemen of Verona) so it truly is anyone's game!