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Janet Louer and Chicago Shakespeare Theater - Elizabeth Rex

Posted November 28, 2011 02:13 PM by Actors Training Center    

"Going into tech for Elizabeth Rex at Chicago Shakespeare Theatre having done movement work." - Janet Louer

Janet Louer, our Musical Theatre Director, has been working with Chicago Shakespeare as their movement coach for their upcoming production of Elizabeth Rex.  

ELIZABETH REX
by Timothy Findley
 
Directed by Barbara Gaines
in Chicago Shakespeare’s Courtyard Theater
November 29, 2011 – January 22, 2012
 
On the eve of his death, William Shakespeare relives another fateful night, fifteen years earlier, when the Lord Chamberlain's Men were invited to perform for Queen Elizabeth—the night before her beloved Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, was to be beheaded for treason to the Crown. The Queen sentenced him to death, and only she can pardon him before the morning. With the possibility of rioting in the streets, a curfew is imposed and the acting company must be lodged that night in the royal stables. Desperately needing distraction from the fateful night's events, Elizabeth seeks out the company of Shakespeare and the actors.
 
But it is not Shakespeare who commands her attention as much as does Ned Lowenscroft, the actor she has seen portray Shakespeare's female roles, including that evening, Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. His body covered in bruises and sores, Ned is dying of syphilis—giving him a fool's license perhaps as he engages the Queen in verbal combat through the night as she awaits her Robert's execution. The actor is set upon revealing the woman who is buried beneath the role the "Virgin Queen" has played, as she, in turn, demands that Ned discover the strength of a man facing his own death, without script in hand.
 

 

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