Bottom the Weaver (Caroline McCoy ’26) performs as Pyramus in Lord Denney’s Players’ 2023 production of William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
King Henry V (Isabella Sanchez ’25) prays before the Battle of Agincourt in William Shakespeare’s The Chronicle History of Henry V (2022).
A production photo from John Fletcher’s The Faithful Shepherdess (2024).
Few writers stir such mixed emotions as Shakespeare. His devoted fans — often called Bardolaters — speak passionately about their favorite scenes and timeless themes of fate, free will, justice, revenge, loyalty and love. For many others, however, Shakespeare can feel like a lingering relic of high school English — something that was survived rather than enjoyed. Lord Denney’s Players (LDP) know that “the Bard” has the power to bring people together and that it can indeed be fun to “brush up on your Shakespeare.” Supported by both the Department of English and the Department of Theatre, Film, and Media Arts, the theatre group embraces the belief that artmaking is for everyone.
Lord Denney's Players, who art thou?
The need for an artistic outlet and a desire to find community is what brings Ohio State students from over 50 different majors to this group. Associate Professor Sarah Neville, creative director and founder of LDP, loves the synergies that the varied student backgrounds create within the group and on stage.
“When we did The Tempest, the actor who played Ariel was an atmospheric science major,” she said. “You can't make that stuff up.”
In addition to students, LDP welcomes faculty, staff and recent alumni. Dost thou suffer from stage fright? Fret not! Participants are needed for a number of other production elements, from tech crew and stage managers, to costuming and set designers, to musicians and choreographers.
For Analese Mitson ’25, LDP tipped the scales in Ohio State’s favor when she was deciding between schools. A self-described “theatre nerd,” Mitson said LDP was “a little place of belonging in a really big school.”
Chemistry major Caroline McCoy ’26, more of an athlete growing up, received a warm welcome when she joined the theatre community in high school. Her uncle, an avid Ohio State fan (both sports and arts), sent her the LDP audition information.
While Joey Hoffmann ’21 participated in high school theatre productions, he had zero experience with Shakespearean acting. When he realized LDP was attached to the department, the English major knew he’d found his artistic outlet.
“I find that much of the struggle with Shakespeare is that what you’re reading is supposed to be a performance,” Hoffmann said. “Having an opportunity to see those flat words on stage — the props, the facial expressions, the physicality — you’re seeing it come alive. It helps to elevate everybody's understanding of the text.”
The strange alchemy of Shakespeare
LDP combines the right elements to create something truly special: donors Frank and Lisa Mauceri’s belief in the power of theatre as a communal experience, a leader who provides a welcoming space to learn, play, and grow, and members of the Arts and Sciences community who are committed to supporting and inspiring one another. This “theatre laboratory” creates an opportunity for Ohio State and the broader community to experience Shakespeare on a deeper level.
There is a long-standing history of critics insisting that the versions of Shakespeare’s plays we are familiar with are his real or perfect ones, but Neville explained that there’s actually more variance than we may realize. In addition to Shakespearean performance and historical bibliography, her scholarly work includes that textual variance as a Shakespeare editor. “We have these shorter, fragmented versions that are considered ‘unplayable,’ that don't bear attention because they are ‘incomplete,’” Neville explained. LDP offers an experiential learning opportunity that engages students — and the public more broadly — with what is otherwise a highly specialized field: the study of variation across Shakespeare’s body of work. And through thirteen LDP productions, Neville has demonstrated to scholars that these plays are, in fact, quite performable.
For example, Richard II was written in 1595, printed in 1597 and 1598 (the first, second and third quartos), and then printed again in 1608 (the fourth quarto). The play dramatizes King Richard II being overthrown by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke (later King Henry IV) — an event that led to the War of the Roses. The cornerstone of this play is a powerful scene where Richard is forced to relinquish the crown, but the passage did not exist in print until the fourth quarto. Shakespeare scholars debate whether the scene was censored before the play was first printed and performed or if it was simply written at a later time.
“I realized I could do things differently because this is academic theatre — theatre functioning as a lab,” said Neville. “We could perform this play where the scene is not there, and then we could put the scene back the next weekend.” Scholars came to observe how the play shifts in the absence of the deposition scene and wrote about that experience.
Neville will sometimes teach a course in tandem with a production, which she did in 2024 with A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Throughout the course they read plays, wrote essays and talked about historical context, but they also worked on the production. Neville discussed the importance of learning other aspects of putting on a play not only as a lesson in perspective, but also to create redundancies so the show can go on no matter what. So, while not all students find themselves on stage, the goal is for the entire class to become well-versed in multiple areas of the production process.
The Faithful Shepherdess by John Fletcher is influenced by A Midsummer Night’s Dream, so Neville included the play in the course reading list. “If you poll the Shakespeare scholars, one in 10 would know what this play is,” Neville said with a laugh. “This play is truly bonkers. And it is bonkers even by the standards of Renaissance drama, which are deeply weird. And the students’ reaction was to say, ‘Oh, please, Dr. Neville, let this be the next play.’ So that's why we chose it.”
Still doth endure with strength a decade hence
Over a decade later, LDP continues to push the boundaries of what it means to perform Shakespeare. “The donors’ continued financial support and commitment to the communal experience that theatre provides enables this sort of intensive research experience to just keep going,” said Neville.
The LDP students highly encourage other members of the Ohio State community to join the group. To put it in a way that Shakespeare would understand…E’en if thou hast ne’er performed at all, pray, do ’t forthwith. Forsooth, ’tis a right hospitable company. Thou shalt have the best time of thy life.
Read more about Lord Denney’s Players at lorddenneysplayers.com.
Photos: Gottesman Photography, James DeCamp Photography, Brittany Koza