The Secret Theatre is staging King Lear as an immersive production in its new Long Island City building, with company founder Richard Mazda in the title role. It runs November 5–21, and tickets are $35.
Shakespeare's tragedy is co-directed by Richard Mazda and Barbara McGlamery, the company's co-artistic director, and is set in Iron Age Britain. Nobody keeps one seat all night: the action moves through several playing spaces built inside the new venue, and the audience travels between them with the actors. Zev Burrows has written an original score and underscore.
McGlamery reads the play as a family story with a political one underneath. "At its heart, King Lear is a family tragedy. Lear loses everything. But it is also the story of the forces that make that tragedy possible—the story of a system destroying itself," she said. "The immersive form allows the audience to experience that collapse in an intimate setting."
Mazda founded The Secret Theatre and also runs the LIC Arts Open festival in Queens, now in its 15th year. His stage credits include Richard III, Shylock, Fagin, Prospero and Scrooge, and his screen work includes Love Actually, Saving Private Ryan and Batman Begins.
The company around him includes Brian Smiga, Alyssa Simon, Lia Bonfilio, Emily Glaser, Joe Schwalb, Fraser Dickson, Matt Tiemstra, Jeffrey Roth, Pat Shay, Gil Torres, Davis Wood, Joshua Mutterperl and Chuck Sams, with an ensemble filling out the court. Smiga, Bonfilio, Schwalb, Tiemstra, Roth, Shay and Torres appear courtesy of Actors' Equity Association.
Costumes are by Sarah Hudkins, assisted by Vanta; lighting and sound are by Juan Morocho and Rafael Guzman; makeup is by Veridiana Montas. Alyssa Van Gorder produces, with Camila Wilson as associate producer.
The run opens Thursday, November 5, and plays Thursday through Sunday at 8 p.m. until Saturday, November 21, with press performances on November 5 and 6. Tickets are $35 at secrettheatre.com, or in person at the theater from half an hour before each performance. The Secret Theatre is at 10-10 44th Avenue, Long Island City, NY 11101.
