O Wicked Villany - A Descent into the Dark Heart of the Bard

O Wicked Villany
Presented by Azusa Productions

Step into the shadows with Shakespeare’s most deliciously devious characters.

O Wicked Villany is an intense, razor-sharp journey through betrayal, ambition, lust, jealousy, murder, and madness — told through the words of the Bard’s greatest villains. From silver-tongued schemers to blood-soaked tyrants, these are the characters who smile while twisting the knife.

Presented by Azusa Productions, the show brings together two artists with deep roots in Shakespeare, theater, education, and darkly compelling performance.

Maggie Speer is a Chicago-area theater veteran — actor, director, producer, educator, and Artistic Director of Azusa Productions — whose work has spanned Shakespeare, Sam Shepard, Tarantino-inspired theatre, new plays, and bold theatrical storytelling. Her background includes directing classical works such as Twelfth Night, The Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, and The Revenger’s Tragedy, along with years teaching theater at Lake Forest College.

Dr. Jonathan Shailor, longtime UW-Parkside professor, performer, Shakespeare scholar, and founder/director of The Shakespeare Prison Project, brings a rare depth to the Bard’s language. His work explores Shakespeare not as museum-piece literature, but as living, dangerous, human material — full of power, conflict, transformation, and revelation.

Part theatrical performance, part literary séance, and part villainous cabaret, O Wicked Villany celebrates the beauty of bad behavior and the poetry of people behaving terribly.

Whether you’re a lifelong Shakespeare lover or just enjoy watching brilliant monsters at work, this is Shakespeare with bite — wicked, intimate, dangerous, and alive.

A descent into the dark heart of the Bard.