Women of Will. Dir. Eric Tucker. Perf. Tina Packer and Nigel Gore. The Gym at Judson. 3 February to 2 June 2013. Update: The winner has been announced.
The good people of the off-Broadway production Women of Will asked if I would be interested in giving away a set of two tickets to their show. And one of you will reap the benefits of my saying yes!
The show is something of a revue. The company itself describes the production in this way:
To make that a bit more tangible, you can see a trailer for the show below:If Shakespeare had “bonus content,” this would be it! Women of Will is an engrossing investigation of the Bard’s art and psyche through his female characters (from Beatrice in “Much Ado About Nothing” to Viola in “Twelfth Night” and everyone in between!). Portrayed by two of Shakespeare’s greatest modern interpreters, Tina Packer and Nigel Gore, it is a true tour de force performance which gives a unique and exciting perspective on some of the most well-known classics in the English language.
The show looks interesting, entertaining, and educational. If I lived closer, I would certainly attend a performance. I can't—but you may be able to win a set of two tickets to do so yourself!
Here, then, are the details of the competition:
- To be eligible for the drawing, you must submit a comment to this post containing your favorite female character from Shakespeare—a character from a play (e.g. Luce from A Comedy of Errors) or a poem (e.g., Venus from Venus and Adonis) or a sonnet (e.g., The Dark Lady). If someone else has already submitted your female character, you may still submit it, though it would be more interesting if you gave us your second-favorite female character. If you comment anonymously, please sign your comment with some identifying pseudonym or initials. That will make our identifying you as the winner possible even if thirteen of you submit Luce from A Comedy of Errors as your favorite female character.
- Comments must be posted before 11:59 p.m. Central Time on Friday, February 22, 2013 in order to be eligible for the competition.
- One winner will be chosen randomly from those who submit comments to this post. That winner will receive two tickets to the show.
- All the responsibility of getting to the theatre to see the show is on the winner. Bardfilm will not provide airfare, cab fare, bus fare, boat fare, Vanity Fair, or any other funds. We will pass your information along to the company, and the company will provide a voucher for two tickets.
- One submission per person, please!
- If the prize is left unclaimed after three days, it will be distributed to another party; if that party leaves the prize unclaimed after three days, it will be distributed to another party; and so on.
- My decision is final.
- I reserve the right to add to this list of rules.
- The winner will be announced on Monday, February 25, 2013—so check back here to see if you've won!
Links: The Production's Official Web Site.
Ooh! ooh! oooh! Pick me! I'll be in New York in May. Since I'm the first commenter here, I'll happily state that my favorite is Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing. She is smart, funny, warm, and loyal, and she's a wonderful blend of a pragmatist with a romantic's heart.
ReplyDeleteShakespeare's women are, in general, pretty awesome in their own ways, but I think my favorite female character would be Hamlet's Ophelia.
ReplyDeleteWhat I love about Ophelia is that she is much more mysterious (and witty) than people give her credit for. The play's first introduction to Ophelia is her conversation with Laertes as he is about to depart for France. After a conversation about how Ophelia should avoid Hamlet's advances (which she seems to be taking with a grain of salt, unlike when Polonius asks the same), Ophelia calls Laertes out on his hypocrisy. She knows what he is going to France to do, and tells him so:
But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven;
Whiles, like a puff'd and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads,
And recks not his own rede.
Basically, Ophelia is telling Laertes not to preach chastity to her when he is doing quite the opposite. Here, she is savvy, witty, and not afraid to call him out. She is also not as sheltered (or as much of a "green girl," to you Polonius's phrase) as the characters think she is. She knows what Laertes is doing and wittily associates him with "ungracious pastors," who would have been commonly mocked in early modern London. She also gets all of Hamlet's bawdy jokes at the Dumb Show ("still better and worse").
Ophelia also commands the stage once she has gone mad. She orders the kingdom--including Gertrude and Claudius--around, demanding that they sing ("you must sing a-down, a-down"), take her flowers, and more than anything, listen to her ("I pray you, mark" she yells over Gertrude at one point). She is powerful when mad, but this power is not solely caused by madness. It erupts from her when she loses her wits, but existed, in smaller doses, in the glimmers of sassiness seen throughout the play.
Ophelia is also the cause of most of the drama of Hamlet, and is a general obsession with the other characters. You could not have Hamlet without Ophelia. Which is another reason why I like her so much: she is often misunderstood and under-appreciated, too easily written out as Polonius writes her off, as a mere chaste maiden with no personality of her own.
Wow, this was much harder to choose then I thought it would be. So many of Shakespeare's women are so wonderful and rich. I'm going to have to go with my first instinct which is Margaret from the Henry VI trilogy but Part II specifically.
ReplyDeleteWhile Margaret is conventionally considered extremely unsympathetic by most people, I find her fascinating. Her passion for Suffolk is all-encompassing and very feminine. But she is fiercer and more of warrior then her husband. She is both masculine and feminine and her monologues are wonderfully varied and full of life.
My second favorite character is a little more conventional. I love Rosalind and her wit. She is always a step ahead of everyone around her!
My favorite is Beatrice. As I get older I think that there is probably a more sophisticated choice, but when I was 13 I was enchanted with the first actress I ever saw play the part, and I've never gotten over it.
ReplyDeleteWell I'm a HUGE Margaret fan as well but as that character has been discussed already I'll go with my second favourite -Juliet from Romeo and Juliet. I had the opportunity to play Juliet (at the ripe old age of 40!) when I was attending the Shakespeare & Company Month Long intensive in January 2012. That was when I met my favourite heroine in the universe - Tina Packer. Like so many people I had a lot of misconceptions about who Juliet is. Tina helped me to see that Juliet is wise and passionate and brave and deeply intelligent. Oh what I wouldn't give to play Juliet in a full production. What an incredible journey!
ReplyDeleteI am going back to NYC in April because I want to see all five parts of Women of Will. I haven't figure out how I will pay for it all yet - so tickets to one of the five would be a great help to me! Whoever wins though - I hope we all get to see it. Tina is a genius and these shows are such an amazing gift to all of us Shakespeare lovers! - Iam
I would have to choose Kate...Perhaps she is a shrew, but I likea strong feisty woman..She knows her mind but when she falls, she does it well and with some grace.
ReplyDeleteNana
Thanks to everyone who submitted. The winner has been announced at this URL:
ReplyDeletehttp://bardfilm.blogspot.com/2013/02/women-of-will-winner-announced.html
Take care!
kj