A real life tragedy isn’t going to stop a new production of one of Shakespeare’s works from opening on the South Coast this month.
The Kingsman Shakespeare Company’s production of “Julius Caesar” is in rehearsal for its July 21st premier at California Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks. Last Friday night, the play’s director, John Slade, died in a traffic accident while return home to Ojai after a rehearsal.
Michael Arndt, who’s the theater company’s founder and artistic director, is taking over as director of the play, which will go on as planned as a tribute to Slade. The production is an unusual one, with Slade setting the classic political tragedy set in modern day Rome, with some of the key players played by people of opposite sexes.
Slade was directing his fourth production for the theater company. In college, he founded a theater company with classmate Gilda Radner, who was one of the original “Saturday Night Live” cast members. He had a four decade long career as a performer, director, and drama teacher.
