Onstage February 11 - 22

All performances at 7:30pm, except for the Sunday matinee on Feb. 15 at 2pm.

Special show - Saturday, February 14 in the Great Hall

A Renaissance is coming to Nelson County theater with the first ever Nelson County Shakespeare Festival production of Shakespeare’s RICHARD III. Using Elizabethan rehearsal practices like memorizing all your lines by the first rehearsal, actor-manager (another Elizabethan practice), Mary Coy is organizing a production of RICHARD III that takes advantage of the theater energy generated by the Hamner Theater and her six years work as Shakespeare consultant at the Nelson Middle School.

“RICHARD III is about the lengths one man will go to obtain and maintain power,” says Coy, “something worth examining as we gear up to select a new leader this fall...

Richard manipulates his friends, the church, and the public to get what he wants. He will stop at nothing. It will be interesting to see how much the audience is repelled by or attracted to him.”

Besides years of experience acting and coaching Shakespeare, Coy has a Masters of Fine Arts in Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature in Performance from Mary Baldwin College and has worked as assistant director and stage manager at the Blackfriars Playhouse in Staunton. Along with Nelson County Schools Gifted Coordinator Betty Tabony, Coy has written a manual, which guides teachers in using Shakespeare to fulfill SOL’s and has taught Shakespeare to hundreds of Nelson County sixth graders. She and Tabony recently co-authored a young people’s version of KING LEAR for Swan Books.

“Performing Shakespeare is a challenge and I want to embark on that challenge here in the county with the adults and kids I’ve worked with over the years, people who know how much I love to teach and perform, people who want to challenge themselves.” says Coy.

Performances will be held at the Hamner Theater and in the Rockfish Valley Community Center “Great Hall” in February. Auditions will be held at the Hamner Monday and Tuesday, July 14 and 15 at 7pm. Actors should memorize 8-10 lines of Shakespeare from RICHARD III or any other play. There are parts for men, women and some children. Once the play is cast there will be an organizational meeting in late July and then the actors will spend the rest of the summer learning their lines either on their own or in small groups.

“Being involved in theater is a lot of fun and Shakespeare is a great way to continue and/or begin that involvement,” says Coy. She goes on to say that actors aren’t the only people needed to ensure a great production. “We need prompters at each rehearsal, house managers, props and costume coordinators- all people important in Elizabethan theater as well theater today.”

For further information contact Mary Coy at (434)263 8802.

Click the link to download the cast list for RIII

Click the link to download the script for RIII