Overview

A KING BECOMES A MAN Richard II is dangerously out of touch with his kingdom. He wastes money, raises taxes to support his lavish lifestyle, plays favorites, and cares more about his vanity than the common good. When Henry Bolingbroke-father of the future Henry V-challenges Richard for the throne, it's a fight the king can't win. But in losing his crown he gains far greater things: his humanity and his soul. Shakespeare's luminous, poetic masterpiece is the first of four plays that chronicle the House of Lancaster's rise and the beginning of the Wars of the Roses.

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9781470812928

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Reviews

A masterfully constructed and engaging theatrical experience. -- Siskiyou Daily News on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's theatrical production of Richard II The playing makes it clear that the characters have something crucial at stake in every scene. -- Medford Mail Tribune on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's theatrical production of Richard II A timely, touching, dazzlingly rendered work of art. -- Ashland Daily Tidings on the Oregon Shakespeare Festival's theatrical production of Richard II

Author Information

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean period, is the most widely known author in all of English literature and often considered the greatest. He was an active member of a theater company for at least twenty years, during which time he wrote many great plays. Plays were not prized as literature at the time, and Shakespeare was not widely read until the middle of the eighteenth century, when a great upsurge of interest in his works began that continues today. Bill Rauch became OSF's fifth artistic director in 2007, after several seasons at the Festival as a guest director. In a total of fourteen seasons there, he has directed five world premieres and sixteen other plays. Established in 1935, the Tony Award-winning Oregon Shakespeare Festival offers an eight-month season with a wide-ranging playbill of eleven productions, including Shakespeare, American classics, musicals, contemporary works, and world premieres. Plays originating at OSF have gone on to be produced by many regional theaters, and its productions have been recognized and honored nationally. In 2011, the Blackstone Audio and Oregon Shakespeare Festival collaboration of Hamlet was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. Dylan Thomas was born in Swansea, Wales on 27 October 1914. In 1934 his first book of poetry, Eighteen Poems appeared, followed by Twenty-five Poems in 1936, Deaths and Entrances in 1946 and in 1952 his final volume, Collected Poems. He also published many short stories, wrote filmscripts, broadcast stories and talks, did a series of lecture tours in the United States and wrote Under Milkwood, the radio play.During his fourth lecture tour of the United States in 1953, a few days after his 39th birthday, he collapsed in his New York hotel and died on November 9th at St. Vincent's Hospital. His body was sent back to Laugharne, Wales, where his grave is marked by a simple wooden cross.In June 1994, his wife, Caitlin Thomas, died in Italy, where she had spent most of the years of her life after the death of Dylan Thomas. Her body is buried next to his.

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