"Richard III the Terrible Reign" performed at Bob Jones University

http://www.bju.edu - An adaptation of Shakespeare's play by director and designer Jeffrey Stegall with John Cox as Richard

Adapted, directed, and designed by JEFFREY STEGALL
Lighting Design by RICHARD STREETER
Sound Design by BOB JOHANSEN
Makeup Design by DAN SANDY
Hair Design by ELIZABETH NELSON
Fight Choreography by ANDREW DYLAN RAY
Original Music by KENON RENFROW

A DESPERATE TOIL TO CATCH THE CROWN

The War of the Roses is over. England is at peace. And no one is safe.

The War of the Roses between the Houses of York and Lancaster has raged for thirty years of bloody, civil strife.The Yorks are currently in power, and Edward IV (Richard’s eldest brother) is on the throne.Richard has spent his entire adult life fighting for his family’s cause; but in this time of relative rest, his soldier skills are no longer needed and his evil mind begins “to dream upon the crown.” He realizes that “many lives [his eldest brother Edward IV, his nephews Edward and Richard, and his elder brother George] stand between him and home.”

And I—like one lost in a thorny wood,
That rends the thorns and is rent with the thorns,
Seeking a way and straying from the way;
Not knowing how to find the open air,
But toiling desperately to find it out—
Torment myself to catch the English crown:
And from that torment I will free myself,
Or hew my way out with a bloody axe.
—Henry VI, Part 3

This is the story of Richard’s murderous, bloody journey to the crown, his terrible reign, and his cataclysmic downfall at Bosworth Field.