Tackling Gender Bias in Classical Theatre

cyindoeuuaa2bzsWe’ll be joining WSC Avant Bard on Saturday, December 3rd, following their 2pm matinee of TAME. for a post show discussion. TAME. is an explosive drama set in 1960s Texas about a wildly creative and spirited young poet named Cat. Grieving the suicide of her lesbian lover, Cat goes home to her religious parents, who are dead-set on forcing her to submit and conform. They hire a firebrand minister named Patrick to try to tame her—but Cat fights back. A rejoinder to The Taming of the Shrew from a woman’s point of view, TAME. is every bit as darkly comic and enthralling as the Shakespeare play that provoked it.

On December 3rd, Charlene V. Smith, Producing Artistic Director of Brave Spirits Theatre, discusses the role of women in classical theatre — from season planning and the artistic process through performance and criticism. BST puts women at the forefront of its artistic mission, addressing the fact that only 16% of Shakespeare’s characters are female through cross-gendered and re-gendered casting and questioning gender constructs throughout a variety of texts. Learn more in this Afterchat, hosted by Resident Dramaturg Maegan Clearwood.