When Genesius Guild founder Don Wooten announced his retirement from the community theater organization at the end of the 2006, he left a stipulation.
"He said on his 80th year, if he could do it, he'd like to come back and really would like to do the ‘Henry Sixes' because they're not done all that often," said Doug Tschopp, who succeeded Wooten as executive director. "And we want to do them all in one year so people can see the story of ‘Henry VI.' "
Wooten is essentially "unretiring," directing all of the shows this season, including all three parts of Shakespeare's "Henry VI" in mid-July at the Lincoln Park Theatre in Rock Island. The first two parts will be July 10-12 and the conclusion will be July 17-19. They will be onstage together the final weekend of the month, with parts one and two July 25 and part three July 26.
Genesius has never done "Henry VI" before, and Tschopp calls it "a powerful play."
"With part 2, that's really the play that put Shakespeare on the map in his day," he said. "It's a soap opera of a different time, but it has all those makings to it."
The script for each part is about 3 1/2 hours, but it has been drastically condensed in this case.
The schedule also allows Genesius, which has scheduled its performances on Saturday and Sunday nights for the past 53 years, to experiment with Friday night shows.
The Genesius performance season begins next weekend with "Hecuba" by Euripides. Tschopp said it's a sequel-of-sorts to "Trojan Women," which was staged last month by Prenzie Players.
"The Trojan War is over and the Greeks have won, but they haven't left Troy yet. This is the story of Hecuba and her loss and how she gained revenge," he said.
The final play of the year will be the Aristophanes satire, "Thesmophoriazusae," which is being reworked by Wooten and Genesius.
Besides the Genesius performances, the summer season at Lincoln Park includes Ballet Quad-Cities, which performed last weekend; Opera@Augustana, which concludes tonight; and the Big River Brass Band, which performs July 3-4.
Posted in Theatre on Sunday, June 14, 2009 2:00 am | Tags: Genesius Guild, Don Wooten, Doug Tschopp, Lincoln Park Theatre
