Élise Hanson

Set in the unmoored, wibbly wobbly margins of Much Ado About Nothing, Kill Claudio! follows characters caught between comedy and catastrophe. Lovers, villains, constables, and courtiers endeavor to understand how the moral logic of the world they inhabit butts up against their emotional responses to altered expectation. As accusations harden into public judgment and forgiveness arrives too late to erase the damage, Shakespeare’s familiar characters are forced to confront a more unsettling question: who grants humanity to whom? Hero ultimately kills Claudio, but the question still hovers over all, even in the midst of triumph and celebration.

When tourism falls in the town of Narancia due to the failing orange crop, the Reverend Mother and Minister for Tourism concoct a plan to drum up the economy: produce a saint. A nun named Sister Immaculata is selected, but unbeknownst to Reverend Mother, Immaculata is midway through a crisis of faith due to her lust for connection, pleasure, and adventure. As Immaculata's popularity grows, so does the microscope on her life. Where once was adulation falls judgment and consternation, which ends with a call for her execution. In the end, however, vibrancy and unbridled joy win the day, and a bounteous and fruitful celebration of life and all it has to offer erupts in the town square, inspired by the vitality of the liberation to be found in identity.

In 1925, Nick Hornby moves to the new money area of Long Island known as West Egg. He befriends a mysterious millionaire named Jay Gatsby, and discovers a world of opulence, deception, illusion, and consumption. The Great Gatsby is a ride of hypnotic delusion where surface impressions are vital, yet masked by contradiction and repetition. It is a story deeply rooted in a decadent aesthetic, defined by a big yellow Rolls Royce, silk shirts, champagne, a glowing green light, and the haunting eyes of Dr. T. J. Eckleburg. Rather than a tidy chamber drama, the narrative of this adaptation functions as a lush, sensory experience where reality is nebulous and shifting, and the overwhelming chaos and kinetic energy make the play's rare, specific moments of stillness incredibly powerful and gripping for an audience.

In Yorkshire England in 1908, a young man—Arthur Craven—inherits his family’s estate Greyhawk upon the untimely deaths of both his parents. With the house comes the care of his troubled sister Ada and gambling debts from his brother Sidney. As Arthur’s world shifts and burdens mount, secrets of old come seeping through the cracks, and strange visions interrupt his waking hours, walking like living nightmares through the halls of Greyhawk.

The Open Syrup: The Bride Got Cracked has the staff of the hotel The Open Syrup in a tizzy. Rhonda the manager does NOT want to serve breakfast. Bradley the superintendent can't fix a leak. Martin the incensed violinist is incensed. And June the bride keeps hiding under furniture to avoid her hippie mother-in-law. Add some mobsters, some alligators, and what may or may not but what definitely is a severed head to the mix, and you've got a day in the life of The Open Syrup!

Poppy Cox, Devine Welsley, and Gena Rocity are on a talk show promoting their new
television show, Sugar Cubes. Little do they know that the fashionable ottoman on the
set isn't an ottoman at all, but a bomb! They'll have to put their wits together to defuse
it before it obliterates their fan base.

In September of 1945—mere months after Adolf Hitler’s demise—the president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, gathers for a simple dinner party at the home of his friend Senator Donald Dinkle. With them is renowned novelist Barbara Bubemuenster and the new boyfriend of Margaret, the president’s daughter. Outside the house a bus of passengers is about to crash (in more ways than one). What will happen when the identity of Margaret’s new beau is revealed? Will the mayonnaise heiress ever be able to repurpose her condiment? Can any of these people aspire to identify with their favorite actress, Margot VanHausenfeffer-Biggs? Find out all in: The Secret Son of Hitler!

Playwright Elise C. Hanson has created a take on William Shakespeare unlike any other, and To Wit is brought to life at The Box by New World Shakespeare Company. The play gathers several survivors of Shakespeare’s plays to discuss their trauma. Hanson has a storied and award-winning career and is known for forward-thinking interpretations of Shakespeare. Hanson masterfully uses language as her weapon, weaving complex clauses in modern English and sometimes even writing in sneaky, subtle iambic pentameter and verse.
Act I sees Horatio (Hamlet), Perdita (A Winter’s Tale), Teufel (Titus Andronicus), Queen Bess (Henry VIII), and Bianca (Othello) united on one stage. Act II converges to another plane, where Horatio now guides some of those who didn’t quite make it (Cleopatra, Romeo, Ophelia, and Lady MacBeth), through their transition. In both acts, a headless body lies on the floor, seemingly without explanation or warrant. Existential quandaries are discussed, griefs are expressed, doughnuts are thrown, and blood and water (from Ophelia’s kiddie pool) splash everywhere.

The most notable thing about this refreshing and remarkable work is the words themselves. Rather than relying on cheap tricks to emulate Shakespeare like using Old English “thou” and “thine” and so forth, the complex, tricky language remains. However, it is attainable, mimicking the Bard’s in an alarmingly robust and lyrical way while offering humor, heart, and pathos that everyone can connect with.

But there’s pizza. Which they eat atop a dead body. Such are the metaphors to be found in this wickedly witty piece.