Richard II (Oregon Shakespeare Festival Production)(Audio Theatre)

Product Description [Full Cast Audio Theatre Production -- Produced by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and directed by Bill Rauch]A KING BECOMES A MAN: Richard II is dangerously out of touch with his kingdom. He wastes money, raises taxes to support his lavish lifestyle, plays favorites, and cares more about his vanity than the common good. When Henry Bolingbroke -- father of the future Henry V -- challenges Richard for the throne, it's a fight the king can't win. But in losing his crown he gains far greater things: his humanity and his soul. Shakespeare's luminous, poetic masterpiece is the first of four plays that chronicle the House of Lancaster's rise and the beginning of the Wars of the Roses. About the Author William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English poet and dramatist of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean period, is the most widely known author in all of English literature and often considered the greatest. He was an active member of a theater company for at least twenty years, during which time he wrote many great plays. Plays were not prized as literature at the time, and Shakespeare was not widely read until the middle of the eighteenth century, when a great upsurge of interest in his works began that continues today.Bill Rauch became OSF's fifth artistic director in 2007, after several seasons at the Festival as a guest director. In a total of fourteen seasons there, he has directed five world premieres and sixteen other plays.