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<div>Dear Colleagues,</div>
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<div>Tomorrow night, the Harry Ransom Center is will be hosting a staged reading of John Wilkes Booth’s <i>Richard III,</i> based on the promptbook held in the Ransom Center’s collections. The reading will be performed by Austin-based <a href="http://hiddenroomtheatre.com/">Hidden
Room Theatre</a>, who specializes in producing unpublished or rarely-seen works. </div>
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<div>The performance will be webcast live and archived on our website, and might be of interest to those of you teaching Shakespeare or American theatre history. The Ransom Center will also be live-tweeting the event (<a href="https://twitter.com/ransomcenter">@RansomCenter</a>),
and viewers can post comments or questions using the hashtag #BoothR3. </div>
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<div><b>When</b>: Live on Tuesday, February 2nd at 8pm EST/7pm CST/5pm PST, and then archived online</div>
<div><b>Where</b>: <a href="http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/webcast/">http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/multimedia/webcast/</a></div>
<div><b>Reading Format</b>: Live music and costumed actors with scripts in hand, enacting the blocking and gestures culled from the promptbook and from contemporary reviews. A discussion will follow the performance.</div>
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<div>A full digital facsimile of the promptbook can be found on our website at: <a href="http://hrc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15878coll67">http://hrc.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/landingpage/collection/p15878coll67</a></div>
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<div>For those in or near Austin, TX, the promptbook is currently on display as part of the Ransom Center’s <i>Shakespeare in Print & Performance</i> exhibition which runs through May 29, 2016.</div>
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<div>Please feel free to contact me with any questions, and thank you for helping spread the word.</div>
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<div>Additional Information:</div>
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<blockquote style="margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; border: none; padding: 0px;">
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<div><font face="Book Antiqua,sans-serif" size="2">John Wilkes Booth, son of the noted Shakespearean actor Junius Brutus Booth and brother to actor Edwin Booth, made his professional stage debut on August 14, 1855 in the Role of Richmond in <i>Richard III</i>.
Within five years, Wilkes Booth had made a name for himself nationally as a star actor and took on the role of Richard himself. He took his job seriously, was encouraging of the actors he performed with, and received overwhelmingly positive critical reviews
during his brief career. His talents matched with his good looks made him a box office success until his politics made it difficult for him to find a theatre that would hire him. Booth was shot and killed 12 days after the assassination of President Abraham
Lincoln. Much of his theatre material went to his brother Edwin, who had it burned.</font></div>
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</font></div>
<div><font face="Book Antiqua,sans-serif" size="2">It is not known how the promptbook for Wilkes Booth’s <i>Richard III</i> survived the fire. A promptbook is the full script of a play with all of the script edits, acting, music, and technical cues specific
to a particular production – in short, one of the best records of what a production looked like. Another handwritten copy of Booth’s promptbook can be found in the Harvard Theatre Collection. It is believed that Booth had two copies – one to keep at the theatre
where he was performing and one that he could send ahead. These are the only two promptbooks of John Wilkes Booth known to exist. </font></div>
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</font></div>
<div><font face="Book Antiqua,sans-serif" size="2">While Booth contributes his own edits, the promptbook primarily uses Charles Kean’s version of Colley Ci</font><font size="2">bber’s <i>Richard III, </i>the latter of which dominated Shakespeare’s play for
over 120 years. Known as the “blood and thunder” or “rapid action” version, Cibber’s Richard is written so that au</font><span style="font-size: small;">diences wouldn’t have needed to see any of Shakespeare’s <i>Henry</i> plays to understand the action. Many
19th-century American audiences saw Cibber’s King Richard as a tragic hero, rather than Shakespeare’s villain. </span></div>
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<div style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><font face="Times New Roman" style="font-size: 11px;">Eric Colleary, PhD</font></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><font face="Times New Roman" style="font-size: 11px;">Cline Curator of Theatre and Performing Arts<br>
Harry Ransom Center | The University of Texas at Austin<br>
P.O. Box 7219 | Austin, TX 78713-7219</font></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><font face="Times New Roman" style="font-size: 11px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>Faculty, Performance as Public Practice Program, University of Texas Department of Theatre and Dance</font></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><font face="Times New Roman" style="font-size: 11px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>Steering Committee, American Theatre Archives Project (ATAP)</font></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><font face="Times New Roman" style="font-size: 11px;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"></span>Website Co-Chair and Webmaster, Theatre Library Association (TLA)</font></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11px;">Web: </span><a href="http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/performingarts/" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 11px;">http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/collections/performingarts</a></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><font face="Times New Roman" style="font-size: 11px;">Email: <a href="mailto:eric.colleary@austin.utexas.edu">eric.colleary@austin.utexas.edu</a></font></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><font face="Times New Roman" style="font-size: 11px;">Phone: 512.475.6502</font></div>
<div style="font-family: 'Book Antiqua';"><font face="Times New Roman" style="font-size: 11px;">Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/ecolleary">@ecolleary</a></font></div>
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