New play by Stoney Richards opens Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks' 20th season

Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks is kicking off its 20th season this April with a slate of events for fans of the legendary playwright.

The “Week of Will,” an annual tradition for Shakespeare in the Parks, begins on April 23, William Shakespeare’s 460th birthday.

The weeklong program will include the world premiere staged reading of “Shakespeare: This Could Be True,” a new one-act play written by and starring Charles David “Stoney” Richards. Richards has acted in a variety of movies and television shows, including Netflix series “The Chair” and Showtime’s “American Rust.” He has also served as a radio broadcaster on stations like Y108. He has worked with Shakespeare in the Parks for several years now, in productions like “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” “Henry V” and “The Two Gentlemen of Verona.”

Shakespeare in the Parks also staged a play by Richards, “Shakespeare: First Drafts,” last April.

“This Could Be True” follows a man (played by Richards) with misidentification syndrome and auditory hallucinations who has been confined to an asylum. He believes that he is Jon Sincler, a real-life actor in Shakespeare’s company and that his medical team is actually John Heminges and Henry Condell, the publishers of Shakespeare’s First Folio. With this, he is convinced that it is up to him to keep Shakespeare’s work from being forgotten forever.

“We’re so excited to be doing yet another world premiere of one of Stoney’s plays,” said Jennifer Tober, founder and artistic director of Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks. “It’s really interesting, the audience is hearing one thing and Stoney’s character is having this completely different reality.”

In addition to Richards, the cast includes Aaron Crutchfield and Anna Singer, with Harper York as the narrator and live music by music director Matt Calvetti. Tober is directing.

Richards has always been attracted to the Bard’s words. “People say he’s the greatest playwright of all time, and I agree,” he said in a phone interview. “But when you’re saying these words, it’s like, this was written 450 years ago and it still thrills me … He wrote this way back in the 1500s and here I am, saying these words.”

He also admires how skilled Will was as a reteller — and rewriter — of existing stories, which gave him inspiration for “This Could Be True.”

“He could find these stories that people were pretty familiar with in the day and he added some swordplay, added all kinds of things, and made it something that the audience could accept and would enjoy,” Richards said. “He messed around with history. He said, ‘Oh, I’m going to make this guy this way.’ I think Shakespeare, many times, without using these words, had something in his head that was like, ‘This could be true.’ That’s how I came up with the idea.”

“Shakespeare: This Could Be True” will run for four performances, April 23-26, all at 7 p.m. They will be held in the Union Trust Building Downtown, and each performance will be followed by a talk-back and wine and cheese reception in the building’s skylight penthouse. General admission tickets for these readings are $35, or $15 for students, and are on sale now.

In addition to “Shakespeare: This Could Be True,” the “Week of Will” has some other events in store. At noon on April 23, “Mrs. Shakespeare” (Yvonne Hudson), in period dress, will place flowers on the Shakespeare statue in Oakland and celebrate the playwright’s 460th birthday.

“We usually have cake or a yummy treat for everyone,” Tober said.

There will also be an annual “Shakespeare puppet slam” online at 3 p.m. Saturday, April 27.

Throughout September, Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks will present “Twelfth Night” in parks around the city. “It’s our musical, Jimmy Buffett-style ‘Margaritaville’ version of ‘Twelfth Night,’” Tober said.

To find out more about Shakespeare in the Parks’ 20th season, and to purchase tickets for “Shakespeare: This Could Be True,” visit pittsburghshakespeare.com.