Richard III: the 30-Minute Shakespeare

Front Cover
Nicolo Whimsey Press, Oct 8, 2019 - Drama - 70 pages
* Far more extensive coverage than any other series of Shakespeare abridgements, adding titles #19 and 20 in Fall 2019

* Each play maintains Shakespeare's original language while abridging the text so that the entire arc of the plot may be covered in a 30-minute performance

* Each play is a complete teaching package for high school English and Drama classes, or for amateur reading groups, with practical stage directions and performance notes

* The series is published in association with the Folger Shakespeare Library's very active Folger Education program, recognized and used extensively by thousands of high school and college educators
Performance rights are included with the purchase of play scripts. Unlike most other scripts on the market today, The 30-Minute Shakespeare has no separate charge for public performances, making each volume an exceptional value.

What makes these books extraordinary is author Nick Newlin's breadth of expertise and experience as a performer, teaching artist and scholar. Newlin holds a BA from Harvard University and an MA in Theatre from the University of Maryland. He has performed a stage act for young people as Nicolo Whimsey since 1986 from the high Himalayas to the White House, and since 2006 he has conducted a teaching artist residency with DC Public High School Students with Folger Shakespeare Library.

Here is what Library Journal says about The 30-Minute Shakespeare series: "...A truly fun, emotional, and sometimes magical first experience, usually guided by a sagacious, knowledgeable, and intuitive educator."

Mr. Newlin has exhibited The 30-Minute Shakespeare for ten years at the annual National Council of Teachers of English conference. English teachers and all who work with young people love these books because they provide a fun and action-packed way to bring Shakespeare's plays to life.

The stage directions in the plays, born out of students' annual performances at Folger Student Shakespeare Festival, are funny, fast, relevant and fun!

Here is a teacher's praise for The 30-Minute Shakespeare series: From a teacher's perspective, this book was a great way to introduce students to a Shakespeare play they otherwise might never have encountered in high school... much more fun working with the adaptation than it might have been if I had tackled the full script. I strongly recommend this book (and the rest of the series) to educators who want to introduce a variety of Shakespeare plays to their students in a limited amount of time. --James Brendlinger, Chairman, Department of Arts and Communications Lake Lowell High School, Winter Park, FL

The 30-Minute Shakespeare series' popularity keeps growing with every new publication. Henry V: The 30-Minute Shakespeare and Richard III: The 30-Minute Shakespeare are books nineteen and twenty in the series, which also includes an anthology of dynamic scenes and monologues. With 5,500 Facebook followers, and an annual email reach to over 25,000 educators, The 30-Minute Shakespeare series plays are performed by thousands of students annually in the US and abroad. Mr. Newlin has traveled to the leading Shakespeare Festivals of Bristol, England, Stratford, Ontario, Utah, Oregon, Virginia and more, meeting with educators and sharing his irrepressible love for bringing young people to their feet performing Shakespeare.

Mr. Newlin displays the 30-Minute Shakespeare nationally at Educational Theatre Association, American Library Association, and the International Thespian Festival.

Regionally, he can be seen at Gaithersburg Book Festival, Kensington Day of the Book, and others.

As a performer, Mr. Newlin has an extensive following from his thirty years entertaining young people. The Nicolo Whimsey Show has thrilled tens of thousands of students, and Newlin dovetails his performing career with his work as an educator/author/publisher . Newli

About the author (2019)

William Shakespeare, 1564 - 1616 Although there are many myths and mysteries surrounding William Shakespeare, a great deal is actually known about his life. He was born in Stratford-Upon-Avon, son of John Shakespeare, a prosperous merchant and local politician and Mary Arden, who had the wealth to send their oldest son to Stratford Grammar School. At 18, Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway, the 27-year-old daughter of a local farmer, and they had their first daughter six months later. He probably developed an interest in theatre by watching plays performed by traveling players in Stratford while still in his youth. Some time before 1592, he left his family to take up residence in London, where he began acting and writing plays and poetry. By 1594 Shakespeare had become a member and part owner of an acting company called The Lord Chamberlain's Men, where he soon became the company's principal playwright. His plays enjoyed great popularity and high critical acclaim in the newly built Globe Theatre. It was through his popularity that the troupe gained the attention of the new king, James I, who appointed them the King's Players in 1603. Before retiring to Stratford in 1613, after the Globe burned down, he wrote more than three dozen plays (that we are sure of) and more than 150 sonnets. He was celebrated by Ben Jonson, one of the leading playwrights of the day, as a writer who would be "not for an age, but for all time," a prediction that has proved to be true. Today, Shakespeare towers over all other English writers and has few rivals in any language. His genius and creativity continue to astound scholars, and his plays continue to delight audiences. Many have served as the basis for operas, ballets, musical compositions, and films. While Jonson and other writers labored over their plays, Shakespeare seems to have had the ability to turn out work of exceptionally high caliber at an amazing speed. At the height of his career, he wrote an average of two plays a year as well as dozens of poems, songs, and possibly even verses for tombstones and heraldic shields, all while he continued to act in the plays performed by the Lord Chamberlain's Men. This staggering output is even more impressive when one considers its variety. Except for the English history plays, he never wrote the same kind of play twice. He seems to have had a good deal of fun in trying his hand at every kind of play. Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, all published on 1609, most of which were dedicated to his patron Henry Wriothsley, The Earl of Southhampton. He also wrote 13 comedies, 13 histories, 6 tragedies, and 4 tragecomedies. He died at Stratford-upon-Avon April 23, 1616, and was buried two days later on the grounds of Holy Trinity Church in Stratford. His cause of death was unknown, but it is surmised that he knew he was dying.