What happened to the boys who played Shakespeare’s women?
“Pagentry, entrancing stage pictures, furious fight scenes and enchanting dance sequences are gloriously on display” – http://TheaterScene.org
At the Globe Theater in the summer of 1606, six boy players warm up, run lines, gossip, and fall in and out of love all in between rehearsals for the premieres of Anthony and Cleopatra and Twelfth Night.
The show sweeps audiences through an engrossing and engaging fusion of tragedy and comedy that never flags throughout its Shakespearean runtime. – http://ThinkingTheaterNYC.com
As the plague and rising religious conservatism threaten their way of life, they are all forced to reconsider their futures on the stage.
“The quick comedians
Extemporally will stage us, and present
Our Alexandrian revels. Antony
Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see
Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness
I’ th’ posture of a whore.”
-Cleopatra, Antony and Cleopatra
“The lives of Shakespeare’s boy players are mostly a mystery. We know that about 60 years after this play they were replaced by women and forgotten. History too seems to want to forget them. When it is brought up, the focus is on the absence of women rather than the presence of boys.
-Zoe Senese-Grossberg, Playwright and Director
One Performance Only! Sunday, Sept 15th 3pm at The Nyack Center, Nyack NY