Chasing Shakespeare

The World Premiere of ‘Chasing Shakespeare’: Who Chooses the Stories that Rule the World?

C.A.T. (Community Actors Theatre) Presents: Chasing Shakespeare by Paola Hornbuckle, Directed by Jennie Hamilton. Show Dates: OCT 7-30, 2022. Fri/Sat 8 p.m., Sun 3 p.m. For information and tickets click

www.communityactorstheatre.com/chasing-shakespeare

Left to Right, Katia Bellamy (Rebecca Hart), John Kane (Gary Tallaksen), and Dr. Robert Bellamy (Evanis Hart)

Dr. Robert Bellamy (Evanis Hart) is a pro-Canon traditionalist. Dr. Julia Hernandez (Iris Anderson) is a postmodern feminist. They fight for the right to choose which plays are presented in a university theatre department. Who will win?

The play Chasing Shakespeare is about the search for ideals. She or he who wins, determines the future of the soul of the Humanities in academia. The Humanities influence culture, film, literature, media. These artistic vessels of impressions, ideas, and information then influence society, law, policies, and social movements. They in turn can influence the fabric of culture and our very existence, including the way we view the planet.

It is also a story about friendship, marriage, work, and the effects of trauma on the psychological health of a person. It is about love. Loving in spite of, accepting the magical, and the intrinsic Goodness of the Universe. It is about imperfect humans. Being them and loving them. It is about being true to yourself, and sticking to ideals. It is also about redemption, forgiveness and compromise.

It is also a struggle. An eschatological struggle between two different ways of viewing the world. One is traditional, and looks toward the past. One is egalitarian, and looks towards the present and future.

Dr. Robert Bellamy is a superstar professor who believes in artistic excellence and The Canon. He is supported by his wife Katia Bellamy (Rebecca Hart) and his colleague John Kane (Gary Tallaksen) He worships Shakespeare and as a fellow playwright, aspires to create beauty and genius in his work. He is an inspirational teacher. His students Olivia (Jamie Pelesky), Sadie (Eden Lorna) and Rochelle (Angelica Tenorio) love him. He is determined to wrench control of the Theatre Department from Dr. Julia Hernandez, a person whom, he believes, pushes politics over substance and quality in the curriculum and her colleague Kyle Bushnell (Antone Williams). He is also a self-serving, egocentric bully, incapable of seeing his own flaws or the virtues of others.

Dr. Julia Hernandez is a traumatized human being, who passionately advocates for the underdog but can be fanatical in her beliefs about the potential for feminist ideology to be the best hope to move humanity to the next level. Women can lead the way to a better, kinder, more caring world.  She is indignant about the sexual harassment and psychological abuse she suffered as an undergraduate student, from a professor she idolized, while the complicit and cowardly theatre faculty looked the other way. Disappointed that the abuse set her back many years in her own academic career. Although she mentally knew it was for the best, she could not ignore the heart’s feeling of permanent grief over the lonely, unconscious choice to distance one’s self from a person one is devoted to, because an instinct inside senses a hidden and malignant darkness of soul. A darkness with potential to destroy one physically, mentally and spiritually.

After her abuse, feminism gave her a road map to comprehend a painful and unjust world. Now, she finally has control of a university theatre department. She plans to promote gender and racial equality by presenting female and minority playwrights. Her time has finally come. Then Dr. Robert Bellamy shows up to turn her world upside down.

Who will emerge victorious from this struggle? And is there anything they can learn from each other? Come see the world premiere of Chasing Shakespeare and find out.