Geoffrey Kent

In December of 2008, while in rehearsal for "The SantaLand Diaries" for the Foothill Theatre in Nevada City, CA I got the call. Kent Thompson, Artistic Director of the Denver Center Theatre Company wanted me to play Ratcliffe in their upcoming production of "Richard III" directed by Jesse Berger. This was in addition to Fight Direction, a weighty task alone, with 10-17 murders or killings planned across the arc of the play.

I was pretty fracking excited to say the least. The cast included some of the DCTC's best, the scale was epic and the fight challenges intimidated me.

1. Stabbing and drowning in a malmsy butt
2. Double neck snaps
3. Hacking into a neck on a table
4. Hanging a resistant Anne off a 10 foot balcony
5. Killing two kiddos via dislocated knees, smothering and a neck snap
6. Beheading John Hutton down stage center in full light
7. A massive battle using most of the cast littering a debris pile with bodies
8. Running RIII through with a boar spear

Eventually 17 deaths in all. Pre-production was a handful as some of the effects were insanely technical, fake collapsable heads, rigging for paint-sticks for leg breaks, breathing tubes for drowning, pneumatic blood cannons for knives, syching with sound, harnesses for hanging and blood, blood blood.

By far the most involved tech I have ever been a part of. A musical of violence. And, in the end, a delight to be in. A great play I can't wait to do again. A bloody director that challenged me in ways I have not been pushed, and a pretty awesome company of actors to get to share the stage with.

"This is, after all, the culmination of the War of the Roses, chillingly depicted in a smoking industrial-castle set lined by a cool moat of skulls — the human refuse piling up from all the battles leading to this one. We see it in truly gruesome killings throughout — hangings, beheadings and even the horrid snapping of a young boy's neck." Denver Post - John Moore

Did I mention Titus grew up backstage at RIII?