One troupe in the successful column is Shakespeare in the Parking Lot, which seeks to bring original takes on the Bard’s works as a way of bringing the stories to new audiences who want to relate to the shows.

Such is the case with its recent work, Holy Writ, a spin on the last story ever written by Rudyard Kipling, the dude who brought the world The Jungle Book, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, Kim, Mandalay, Gunga Din, and The Man Who Would Be King. 

The story was said to be the product of a lunch conversation between the author and John Buchan, said to be the father of the modern spy novel. The two writers were reportedly debating the process the authors of the King James Bible had to go through to create an entire book of some of the most poetic language England has to offer. Buchan wondered, it is said, that the learned and theologically trained committee who penned the version of the Bible likely would have sought the advice of modern writers to at least craft particular lines and to draw from their talents since none of them were professional writers and the writing is so elegant. He then argued that it would then only seem logical that the writers would have at least sought some thoughts from two of the best writers of the age, Shakespeare and his chief rivals, Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson.

 

The timeline would fit since King James first sought the creation of a Bible in 1604 that would please the bishops as well as the rising Puritan movement. He then gathered the most knowledgeable men of the day to create essentially a new word of God. They were split into six groups meeting at Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster, each taking a different portion of the text.



Eventually Miles Smith, a distinguished oriental scholar of Oxford, and Thomas Bilson, the learned Bishop of Winchester, were appointed to make a final revision of the text of the Old Testament.



Smith was made a bishop in 1612, following the publication of the King James Bible in 1611. This would be at a time when Shakespeare would have been well known, so it would only seem logical that he would have at least gotten a sneak peak at the work in progress.

Kipling loved the notion of having the Bard’s finger on the Bible and wrote a story about how that exchange would have gone. Shakespeare in the Parking Lot’s Holy Writ is a stage version of that story as adapted by SIPL founder and driving force Kristie Worthey. 

Proofs of Holy Writ will be performed at 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 15, at King’s Books, 218 St. Helens Ave.; at 2 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, at Mandolin Cafe, 3923 S. 12th St.; and at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, at Sanford & Son, 743 Broadway. All performances are by donations only. More information is available at www.shakespeareintheparkinglot.org.

Also on stage

• Playback Theater: Heartsparkle Players’ spontaneous collaboration brings together the performers and the audience to create a once-in-a-lifetime show. Audience members will tell moments from their lives and then see them re-created in movement, music, humor, and dialogue. 
  
  
  
  [Traditions Café, Friday, Nov. 14, 7:30 p.m., $5-$10, 300 S.W. Fifth Ave., Olympia, 360.943.6772]
  
   


• William Shakespeare’s Macbeth: In case you were snoozing through high school English class, Macbeth delivers one of Shakespeare’s most straightforward narratives. Scottish nobleman Macbeth, recently honored for his heroic actions in war against Norway, hears a prophecy from three witches that he is to be king. Lady Macbeth, keen to be queen, prompts and goads her husband into killing good King Duncan and forcing Duncan’s sons into exile by framing them for the crime. Macbeth becomes king and proceeds to spend his reign slaughtering all those he fears may threaten him and becoming ever more paranoid.
  
  
  
  [Lakewood Playhouse, through Nov. 16, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday,  $14-$22, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd., next to the Pierce Transit Center in the heart of the Lakewood Towne Center, 253.588.0042, www.lakewoodplayhouse.org]
  
   


• Little Women: The story of a family of girls as they find struggles and inspiration while their father is away at the battlefields of the Civil War. 
  
  
  
  [River Ridge High School, through Nov. 22, 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, $6-$8, 350 River Ridge Dr. S.E., Lacey, 360.412.4837]
  
   


• Guys and Dolls: The classic musical about gangsters and dames and gambling and guns.
  
  
  
  [Minnaert Center, through Nov. 23, 8 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, $10-$25, 2011 Mottman Road S.W., Olympia, 360.596-5304]