“I love theater, I love friends, I love family, and I love friends who become family,” says Wichita thespian Jeremy Buoy.

Buoy pairs that love with his vision for the upcoming production of “Book of Will” by Lauren Gunderson, which he directed and stage designed for the Guild Hall Players. The show runs May 21-24.

The play’s story begins several years after the death of William Shakespeare and, more crucially, of legendary actor Richard Burbage, the troupe’s star, who performed the playwright’s most memorable characters. His death catalyzes the action: Actors Henry Condell and John Heminges realize that their friend’s unpublished words are beginning to erode in performances and could one day be lost altogether. They decide to compile Shakespeare’s plays into what would become the First Folio. 

The project draws together a variety of Shakespeare’s beloved friends and family — from actors to printers to typographers to wives and daughters. Buoy’s vision leans into those close friendships emerging from that labor of love. 

Putting up a show in Shakespeare’s time differed radically from later practices. No director oversaw productions. Different plays were featured from one day to the next, with rehearsals taking place only hours before curtain (except, of course, that there was no curtain). Players used “cue scripts” that provided only individual actors’ lines, similar to the “sides” modern actors use for auditions. 

For this and other reasons, the folio project presented challenges: compiling it in an era of fiercely competitive (and not always honorable) publishing, text pirating, and the physical difficulties of early 17th-century printing and binding. As noted in a 2025 review of the show, the “breezy and theatrical” play offers the history “without being dry or arcane.”

“The women were foundational in finding the actual text and being able to use that in the first folio,” said Emily Larkin-Valdez, who plays John Heminges’ daughter, Alice. She praised Gunderson’s script for revealing the work and the connections of the group’s women, who “I think are really the heart of this entire effort.”

Larkin-Valdez’s performance marks her return to the stage after taking a six-year hiatus for various reasons, including the untimely death of her father. She graduated from Newman University in 2020, studying with director of theater Mark Mannette, from whom she said she learned much about Shakespeare. (She went on to receive a Master of Business Administration in 2022.) 

Many actors play multiple characters, some known, others more obscure. In addition to Alice, Larkin-Valdez plays Susanna Shakespeare, the playwright’s older daughter. For that character, she had plenty of resources available to study, but Alice was in real life one of Heminges’ six children and in this play “an amalgam” of them all. 

Chelsea Daniel plays Rebecca, Heminges’ wife, and for that relatively obscure role, she said, “I thought about the strong ladies in my life, and how they go about getting people to do the things they need to do. I used bits and pieces of them and their strengths.”

She also plays Shakespeare’s wife, Anne Hathaway, who has been written up extensively in books and film, albeit with wildly varying interpretations of her motives and the degree of love between the couple.

“I did quite a deep dive on her and the varied past that people have put on her,” Daniel said. “There’s a lot of reading about her, including the infamous ‘second-best bed’ debacle” (about the controversial piece of furniture Shakespeare left her in his will). 

Daniel looked at the complexity of Hathaway’s history and also “where she is on that cycle of grief” years after the death of her husband — a component touched on in the play. “Everybody is at a different point of grieving, and I think that’s interesting for the women, because I think they’re at a point where they can accept that he’s gone, and that they are working to keep his name in people’s mouths. Women are very forward thinking. Even in the financial part of this show.”

Owen Balman plays book publisher Isaac Jaggard and Ed Knight, the troupe’s stage manager — both relative blips in history. He credited Buoy, who has directed in various Wichita theaters, for assigning the cast research work, but noted that with this play, “the writing is so well crafted that the characters are given distinct personalities, and you know who they are right away.” 

Balman minored in theater and cited Joseph Urick, who teaches at Wichita State, as a strong influence. He most recently appeared with Urick in the Guild’s production of “Hamlet.”

Remaining actors in this production are Anthony Larkin-Valdez, Johnny Kline, Dan Schuster, Robert Brining, Braden Labrue-Layman, Vonda Schuster, Ethan Mowery, Luke Jones, and Matthew Neises. Nearly half of the cast is appearing with Guild Hall Players for the first time.

In addition to acting in the show, Balman has used what he learned as a graduate of WSU’s Elliott School of Communication to creatively promote “The Book of Will.” Just as the play is about how people of varied skills and backgrounds came together to create the folio, his publicity plan features social media interviews featuring every single individual in the play’s cast and crew on Instagram and Facebook. The interviews also can be found on individual pages belonging to Daniels, Larkin-Valdez, and himself.

In addition, as what he called “guerrilla tactics,” about half the cast showed up at an early May Old Town Farm and Art Market to chat with customers and vendors about the play.

When her father died, Larkin-Valdez withdrew, questioning her skills as an actor, wondering whether or not she could really succeed. She credited her husband, Anthony Larkin-Valdez, for bringing her back to the stage. 

But she noted that this particular production also factored in her decision to return. “Jeremy is a good friend, and this was a good show to come back to.”

The Details

“The Book of Will”
 May 21-24, 2026, at St. James Episcopal Church, 3750 E. Douglas Ave. in Wichita

Shows take place at 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and 7 p.m. on  Sunday in the church’s guild hall. Tickets for adults are $12 per person; $10 for students and military.

To make a reservation, contact the Guild Hall Players  through Facebook or leave a message with the church office at 316-683-5686 before noon on Friday. Provided shows do not sell out, tickets may also be purchased at the door. 

The guild hall is accessible to audience members with physical disabilities.

Editor’s Note: To our knowledge, this is the second Lauren Gunderson play to be staged in Wichita this year. ICTRep produced Gunderson’s “Silent Sky” in the Dome Theater at Exploration Place in January.

Anne Welsbacher writes plays, fiction and nonfiction, and book and theater reviews. She can be found on Substack and Bluesky. She is the Performing Arts Editor for this publication. awelsbacher.com

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