I’m excited to have been cast as the Duke of Burgundy in King Lear with The Antaeus Company. Not only is it an increadible cast, creatives and crew but it is the company’s first full season and their first fully produced Shakespeare play. King Lear is about the Duke of Burgundy who comes for the hand of King Lear’s daughter Cordelia… and some other stuff happens.

Here’s the lowdown on the production as written in PlayBill.

The Antaeus Company production of Shakespeare’s King Lear, which double-casts three-time Tony Award nominee Harry Groener and Dakin Matthews as the failing king, begins previews June 12 in Los Angeles.

Bart DeLorenzo directs the dual-cast engagement that will continue through Aug. 8. Two gala openings, one for each respective cast, are set for June 26 and 27.

Groener (Crazy for You, An American in Paris) and Anteaus founding artistic director Matthews (2010 Bridge Project) lead a company that also features Allegra Fulton and Kirsten Potter as Goneril; Francia DiMase and Jen Dede as Regan; Rebecca Mozo and Tessa Thompson as Cordelia; Ramon De Ocampo and John Sloan as Edgar; Daniel Bess and Seamus Dever as Edmund; JD Cullum and Stephen Caffrey as the Fool; Robert Pine and Norman Snow as Gloucester; Morlan Higgins and Gregory Itzin as Kent; Kevin Daniels and Adrian Latourelle as Cornwall; and John DeMita and Thomas Vincent Kelly as Albany.

The ensemble comprises Adam Meyer, Nick Cagle, Brett Colbeth, Jeff Doba, Drew Doyle, Jeff Gardner, Bruce Green, Jason Henning, John Francis O’Brien, Renata Plecha, Jeremy Shouldis and Paige Wilson.

King Lear has set design by Tom Buderwitz, lighting design by Lap Chi Chu, costume design by A. Jeffrey Schoenberg and sound design by John Zalewski.

“We chose Lear because it’s a fantastic ensemble piece, and because we wanted to feature our founding artistic director, Dakin Matthews,” said artistic director Jeanie Hackett in a statement. “Dakin is one of the country’s foremost interpreters of the Bard, and this is an opportunity to explore a Shakespearean play with the master. We double-cast all our productions, a technique that strengthens the way we collaborate and work together as an ensemble, so we’re incredibly fortunate to have the equally superlative actor Harry Groener to share the title role.”

King Lear is presented at the Deaf West Theatre, located at 5112 Lankershim Blvd. in North Hollywood, CA

From Theater Critic John Moore’s article in the Denver Post Sunday, October 25 2009:

As much as audiences grumble about understudies, they make for some of any company’s most legendary tales. Like when Scott Ferraro came down with food poisoning at 4 p.m. the day of a 2002 preview performance of “Hamlet.” Jason Henning, a third- year conservatory student, was called on to perform the title role having had not one second of rehearsal. Then-artistic director Donovan Marley called it “a world-class performance.” Said Henning afterward: “I was very glad to die.”

You know, because Hamlet dies in the end and so I was very glad that… Anyway, after “And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest!” etc. and the house went black I immediately stood up and promply walked my shins square into the king’s throne. Nice.

Anyway, I made the fridge again with this clipping.

There are loads of good little stories within this one.  I’ll tell you the full story over a pint.