Like a King: Casting Shakespeare’s Histories for Citizens and Subjects

Like a King: Casting Shakespeare’s Histories for Citizens and Subjects is a dual examination of Shakespeare’s history plays in their early modern production contexts and the ways in which the histories can speak directly to twenty-first-century American political and social concerns. Author and production director Christina Gutierrez-Dennehy examines how strategic doubled and re-gendered casting can animate the underlying questions of Richard II, Henry V, and King John in vital and immediate ways for American audiences. Examining evidence from both the archive and the rehearsal room, Gutierrez-Dennehy explores the texts as repositories for twenty-first-century dialogues about power, gender, identity, nationhood, and leadership. With the American political system as its backdrop, Like a King argues that productions of Shakespeare’s histories can interrogate and explore the relationships between American citizens and their leaders.