Historic Doubts
by Luke Sorge
Please note: Though the Scripts in Play Festival is free, please register by clicking the "Buy Tickets" button.
February 2 and 4, 2024
A century before the Shakespeare authorship debate, a young Lutheran pastor publishes a satirical book comparing the Bard’s authenticity to Jesus Christ’s divinity. With the help of renowned actress Charlotte Cushman, he overcomes his writer’s block and believes he’s ended atheistic arguments once and for all. But when the book is taken literally, his ensuing crisis of confidence leads to a crisis of faith… and a reckoning with the true meaning of Shakespeare. Historic Doubts is not only based on true events, featuring real historical figures, but the story also grapples with arguably the two most influential texts in human history: the Bible and Shakespeare’s works. The enduring impact of the words themselves are much more interesting than who wrote them. In this way, Historic Doubts is absolutely in conversation — at one point, quite literally — with time-tested classics.
Avant Bard would like to thank Sara Cormeny and Pete Miller for their support of the 2024 Scripts in Play Festival.
Performance Days and Times
Friday, February 2, 7:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Sunday, February 4, 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.
Mason Exhibitions Arlington
Production Team
Director: Stevie Zimmerman
Dramaturg: Kate Foster Vishniakova
Stage Manager: Jessica Schweizer
Kat Snyder
Just so you know — while I did go ahead and order a ticket for the reading of Historic Doubts on Feb. 4 — the registration form gave the performance time as 2 a.m. ! 🙂
Also on some intermediate screen in the checkout process, the performance date read Feb. 3. Well, I’ll turn up at 2 p.m. on Feb. 4 and look forward to it, trusting the announcement on ArlNow meant what it said! Sounds like a fascinating premise.
Peter Threadgill
Oops! Yes, the reading is definitely on Sunday, February 4, at 2:00 p.m. Thanks for pointing out the error, and we hope to see you there!