“I think most of the time, we are watching people deal with extraordinary circumstances,” director Craig Baldwin tells a room full of actors in a midtown rehearsal space.

It’s an unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon in mid-October, and the group has gathered for their final rehearsal of Richard II before advancing to tech week at the Astor Place Theatre . After an off-book run-through of the show, they’ve changed into comfier clothes and are sitting, scripts and notebooks in hand, in the part of the room labeled “stage right,” eager for more feedback from their director.

“The humanness of [the play] is that we watch how all these different people deal with those things in a country that is falling apart,” Baldwin goes on. “What are the choices people make? Who is trying to make the cou

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