Belmont Abbey play exploring Shakespeare's legacy

William Shakespeare is dead, but his friends don't want his work to be forgotten.

This is the premise "The Book of Will," a play that opens Thursday at the Haid Theatre in Belmont.

"This is a play about preserving Shakespeare's legacy, and it's a supposition about what might have happened," said Margaret Petrey Smith, the marketing director for the Abbey Players.

Written by Lauren Gunderson, "The Book of Will" is centered on three famous figures that were a part of Shakespeare's inner circle, actors John Heminges, Hendry Condell, and Richard Burbage.

"Once Shakespeare passes, they are still active in theater, and they're still remembering the years, the decades that they spent producing and acting and everything it took to get this work on stage," Smith said. "And then all of a sudden, they realize, how do we capture his legacy?"

"It kind of goes on this madcap caper of, well, who has this script, and who has this book, and who remembers this play that we did 20 years ago," she added.

Tim Grant, who plays John Heminges, came from Denver, Colorado to work with the Abbey Players on the show.

Grant works at the Denver School of the Arts as a guest artist, but he has some ties in the Charlotte area.

"I came across this play because it was developed in Denver back in 2017 at the Denver New Play Festival. And so when I read it, I said, this is perfect for my students, we should perform it, and I sent a copy to my friend Jill Bloede, who is the director," she said. "She read it. She got halfway through it and said, 'I'm doing this play too… and I think you should come out and do it. You should be in it. And I laughed it off."

Later, however, Grant was offered a place to stay in the area, and so he decided to come after all.

"So I finished directing my production in December, celebrated Christmas and then jumped in the car and drove out here and studied my lines on the three day journey."

One of the aspects of the play he enjoys is "just the camaraderie of a group of actors getting together and reminiscing about shows they did."

"To save Will's shows, they have to find all of the pieces and the different actor's parts, because Shakespeare only wrote the character's lines, he didn't assemble very many full scripts," Grant said.

"People say, 'Oh, Shakespeare, huh? But really, it's a story about friendship, about families. You'll laugh and you'll cry hopefully."

Want to go?

The show runs Thursday through Saturday for two consecutive weekends at 8 p.m., and a Sunday matinee at 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 26

Tickets are $10 at the door and can be purchased online at www.abbeyplayers.org.

The Haid Theatre is on the campus of Belmont Abbey College at 100 Belmont-Mt. Holly Road, Belmont.

This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: Belmont Abbey play exploring Shakespeare's legacy