Raising the Bard

2008 was a killer year for new finds: 264 gold coins from the seventh century in Israel’s Jerusalem National Park, legless lizards in the Brazilian rainforest, and a previously undiscovered Shakespeare play – at least, that’s what the late playwright Dale Wasserman wanted you to believe.

Theater Works will present the world première of Wasserman’s final play, Premiere. The full-scale production chronicles the (we think) discovery of Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Alcibiades and hypothesizes about the cultural reaction to such a find. Press materials advertising the original York Theatre Company staged reading divulged little of the show’s plot, and local director Daniel Schay isn’t telling, either. “The circumstances of the discovery of [Shakespeare’s] play are precisely the plot of Premiere,” says Schay. “I shan't disclose them here, sirrah!” That’s 16th-century speak for “You’ll just have to pay the $12 to $22 and go find out for yourself.”