Rose Queen Megan Rippey and Brian White

The Ensemble Shakespeare Theater, a new Pasadena-based theater company presents Shakespeare’s Rose Queen, a new play adapted from Henry VI parts 1-3 and Richard III by William Shakespeare at the Lineage Performing Arts Center (89 S. Fair Oaks Ave, Pasadena), beginning February 20 through March 13th.

Imagine if Shakespeare had written Game of Thrones.

Ancient family rivalries pit an ineffectual king against his bloodthirsty cousin in a violent medieval civil war. The charismatic queen takes over and becomes the most powerful leader in the land, crushing her opponents with clever cruelty. This isn’t George R. R. Martin; it’s Shakespeare’s so-called “War of the Roses” plays, adapted by the Ensemble Shakespeare Theater into Shakespeare’s Rose Queen, opening in Pasadena on February 20th.

Queen Margaret, the “Rose Queen”, is one of Shakespeare’s most incredible characters that you’ve never heard of. She’s lost to most Americans because she’s buried in the War of the Roses plays, which are rarely performed this side of the Atlantic. But Shakespeare’s audiences loved Queen Margaret so much, in fact, that Shakespeare added her to an extra play where she didn’t belong, rewriting history in order to give Margaret one last hurrah.

Queen Margaret was one of Shakespeare’s favorite characters, and after seeing Shakespeare’s Rose Queen, she will be one of yours. Shakespeare’s Rose Queen takes Margaret’s story out of the plays she’s in (Henry VI parts 1-3 and Richard III), and creates an entirely new Shakespeare play that focuses on the history from Margaret’s point of view. Margaret is thrust into a male-dominated world of royal backstabbing and strategy, only to become the most powerful person in England through her cunning and charm. Her reign as Queen in the War of the Roses doesn’t last forever, though, as the deceitful men she commands eventually show their true colors, leaving Margaret abandoned.

The Ensemble Shakespeare Theater brings this vivid story of a complicated female character to life through an intimate theater setting, featuring dance, music, and Shakespeare’s original language. The Ensemble’s style isn’t the stuffy recitation you might be used to; Rose Queen is a gritty, dangerous story told with an infectious enthusiasm. The Ensemble is known for risky and original choices in adaptation, creative minimalistic staging, and constant evolution–no two audiences experience the same show. Adapted and directed by Brian Elerding, who took the Ensemble’s last show, Shakespeare’s Villains, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Shakespeare’s Rose Queen will be performed Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. and Sundays at 7:00 p.m., Feb. 20th through March 13th. Tickets at $18 adults, $14 students/seniors. For tickets and more information, go to www.ensembleshakes.org.

Shakespeare’s Rose Queen is made possible in part by the City of Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division.

About the Ensemble

Three working actors had an idea one evening over dinner: what if they got the best Shakespearean actors they knew, then stripped their favorite plays down to only the words and the people? What if they slimmed down their production to no more sets or costumes than were required to tell the story at hand? By the end of dinner, the Ensemble Shakespeare Theater was born.

The ensemble is based on the idea of a supergroup; it is a side project for currently working actors, and an incubator for up-and-coming actors. Some in the ensemble are the stars of hit TV shows, and some in the ensemble are fresh from training. Roles are cast from the ensemble without regard to name recognition.

Three years after its inception and inaugural season at Descanso Gardens, The EST now lives at the Lineage Performing Arts Center in Pasadena. The group creates new adaptations of Shakespeare’s writing, and continues its relationship with Descanso Gardens through original family shows and performances of works by William Shakespeare.

The EST is a 501c3 nonprofit arts organization. For more information on shows and the ensemble, go to www.ensembleshakes.org.