Written by Bob Shuman
Directed by Frank Farrell and Bob Shuman
Production Manager Frank Farrell
Based on Shakespeare's "The Two Gentlemen of Verona"

"Little Jewel: In the Plagues and Throes of Love" is based on Shakespeare’s “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” and is written in Early Modern English and iambic pentameter. The play is set amid the fearful turbulence of the Italian Renaissance, or in the Bronx during COVID, or even in Elizabethan England in the course of a pox outbreak—times analogous, or as Einstein theorized, all happening at once. The window into these worlds is the dogs inhabiting the grounds at the Duke of Milan’s castle. They are cared for by Magdalene, a milkmaid, and Launce, Sir Proteus’s servant. Displaced into a terror-ridden world of a severe epidemic, part of a larger pandemic, they, their love, and the destinies of their animals, may remind audiences of their own lives in a time not very long ago.

Featuring: Noni Alley, Bobni Das, Alejandro Flores, Ireland Meacham, Katy Robinson, Eike Ross, and Wei

Bios

Bob Shuman (Playwright, Director, and Producer) had his work included in Theater for the New City’s Dream Up Festival, 2024 (“Tongs and Bones Shakespeare”)--he is beyond grateful. He earned an MFA in Dramatic Writing at NYU/Tisch and is the owner of Marit Literary Agency and the Theatre Web site Stage Voices. He is also a playwright, a senior editor with experience in mainstream publishing, a college professor, and a recipient of Hunter College’s Zarkower Award for excellence in playwriting. His dramatic work has appeared in four anthologies from Applause Theatre and Cinema Books, which includes a volume of monologues for kids. He co-edited “Acts of War: Iraq and Afghanistan in Seven Plays” (Northwestern University Press) and has written for the Eugene O’Neill Society and judged work for the New York Innovative Theatre Awards. Co-author, with fashion florist Michael George, of “Simply Elegant Flowers,” Shuman is a past fellow of the Lark Theatre Company, and his work has been given readings with the Amoralists, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Second Stage, and the WPA, among others. Productions and readings of his plays have been presented at New York University, Ursinus College, Hunter College, and University of Mount Saint Vincent. He has also spearheaded three monologue events at the Drama Book Shop, where he was a featured author, and he ran such an evening at the Cornelia Street Cafe. He attended the Sewanee Writers Conference in Tenn., and his musical compositions for “As You Like It” and “Twelfth Night” have been heard at Ursinus College. Additionally, Shuman has acted in college productions and in local theatre in NJ and GA. He has seen productions of every Shakespeare play, many of which he has reviewed for his site, and has interviewed industry notables such as playwright Albert Innaurato (in his last “talk” before his death), Natalia Kaliada (Belarus Free Theatre), and Mia Yoo (La MaMa), among others. The actor Liv Ullmann answered several of his questions for “The Guardian” (UK). In 2021, one of the projects he represented as a literary agent was optioned by HBO, and he currently teaches courses on Eastern European Literature and Environmental writing.

Frank Farrell (Director and Production Manager ) recently returned to his hometown New York City and directed “Walt Kelly’s Songs of the Pogo” as part of the 2024 New York City Fringe Festival. An actor in Chicago for 40 years, he received three Joseph Jefferson acting nominations, and directed and produced plays for the Free Shakespeare Theatre Company, Temporary Theatre, Shakespeare’s Herd, Steppenwolf Theater, Raven Theatre, Equity Library Theater Chicago, the North Lakeside Players, and Theatre-Hikes. Frank has formed seven theater companies, including the Free Shakespeare Theatre Company, Chicago’s first year-round Shakespeare performance ensemble, Theatre-Hikes in Chicago and, in Grand Haven, Michigan, the Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company. In New York City, for First Flight, his new performance group, he wrote, directed, and produced “Forgotten Soldiers from Our Forgotten War.” Also for First Flight, he coordinated several stage readings of Maxwell Anderson’s plays in New York City, New Jersey, and Chicago, and he directed and produced a 2022 production of Anderson’s play “Valley Forge.” His Zoom film “In the Garden of Live Flowers” recently won Best Biopic at the Green Academy Awards Film Festival. With First Flight in New Jersey in July, he directed his adaptation of “Little Women.” In August 2024, through his company FFP, he produced “Hamlet on the Run” at the Tank Theater; in September, he produced and directed “Tongs and Bones Shakespeare” Off-Off Broadway at Theater for the New City. Besides “Little Jewel,” Farrell will direct “Tom Sawyer,” for First Flight Theatre Company, during the summer of 2025. Farrell has published several books, including “Forgotten Soldiers from Our Forgotten War,” “What Price Glory,” and his adaptation of “Little Women,” all available at Amazon.com.