Nick Canon as Will Shakespeare and Anne Armenta as Emilia Bassano in the UNT production of The Lady Revealed. Photo by Justin Curtin.

Last year, we reported that the famous ‘Dark Lady’ had made an appearance in North Texas. The UNT Theatre program staged The Lady Revealed, a play about both the ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s sonnets and the Oxford don who believed he had discovered the identity of the bewitching mistress whom William Shakespeare worshiped and castigated in print. UNT theater professor Andrew Harris gets to the story of the Dark Lady through the prolific and pugnacious historian A. L. Rowse who ignited a controversy that still simmers today. But The Lady Revealed is also about an Elizabethan woman, Emilia Bassano — a published poet and the daughter of Italian Jewish musicians brought to London by Henry VIII — a woman so unusual and independent for her era, she deserves attention, regardless of whether she really was Shakespeare’s adulterous lover.

Next month, Theatre 3 will present The Lady Revealed for two free performances — with Theatre 3’s founding director Jac Alder playing Rowse.

The full release follows:

Theatre3 Dallas and UNT theatre students present professor’s play, The Lady Revealed

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What: The Lady Revealed, written by UNT Department of Dance and Theatre professor Dr. Andrew B. Harris, and performed by Jac Adler, founding director of Theatre3 Dallas, and other professional actors, including UNT undergraduate students.

When: 7 p.m. March 18 (Tuesday) and 7 p.m. March 19 (Wednesday)

Where: Theatre3, 2800 Routh St., Dallas

Reservations: The performances are free, but RSVP to Theatre3 at 214-871-3300

More info: To interview Dr. Andrew B. Harris about his play, email [email protected].

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When he revealed the identity of the Dark Lady of William Shakespeare’s sonnets, historian A.L. Rowse’s life was never the same. UNT Department of Dance and Theatre professor Dr. Andrew B. Harris has dramatized Rowse’s experience in his play, The Lady Revealed, which will be performed in Dallas March 18 and 19.

The Department of Dance and Theatre is proud to announce, in collaboration with Theatre3 Dallas, two free performances of the workshop production of The Lady Revealed.

The Lady Revealed tells the story of Oxford historian A.L. Rowse and his controversial discovery of the identity of William Shakespeare’s mistress, the Dark Lady of the Sonnets. Using the Case Books of Elizabethan astrologer, Dr. Simon Forman, Rowse discovered a woman who was too extraordinary to remain a footnote in the biography of Shakespeare. This Faustian tale plays out in The Lady Revealed.

The play takes place in three time periods – in 1993, on Rowse’s 90th birthday; the 1970s, when Rowse made his famous claims about the Dark Lady; and the Elizabethan era, in which the audience sees Shakespeare and the Dark Lady as Rowse imagined them.

Jac Alder, founding director of Theatre3 Dallas, heads a cast of professional actors which includes three University of North Texas undergraduate students, Caroline Dubberly, Evan Scott and Kasey Tackett. The workshop production will be directed by George Boyd.

The two nights of performance, March 18 and 19 at 7 p.m., are free of charge and open to the public. Reservations can be made through the Theatre3 Box Office by calling 214-871-3300.