In his play Henry V, William Shakespeare wrote the character of Captain Gower as a man, an officer in the English army. In his version of the play at the Folger Theatre in Washington, D.C., director Robert Richmond makes Gower a lusty tavern wench crushing on Captain MacMorris. He also turns the soldier Bates into a nun, but still gives her the line, "Be friends, you English fools, be friends. We have French quarrels enough." Go get 'em, sister.
But, hey, the argument goes, Shakespeare did not write enough roles for women in the modern theater, so let's re-engender some of the roles to give actresses more Shakespearean acting opportunities. That was the stated purpose of writer and director Tom Mallan in his 2011 adaptation of Shakespeare's Prince Hal cycle as The Mistorical Hystory of Henry (I)V at WSC Avant Bard in Arlington, Va. To give his actresses more meaty roles, he set his play in an Edwardian-era brothel with the prostitutes playing the historical characters in burlesque shows.
See a pattern here? To cast more women in Shakespearean roles, directors are turning male roles into sluts, whores, and nuns. That says more about male archetypal attitudes toward women than it does any Shakespearean insights. Even scarier, this is a modern take on women in Shakespeare. Modern man's take.
Any discussion about Shakespeare and gender inevitably gets wrapped up in the fact that women were not allowed to act on the Elizabethan and Jacobean stages, so boys played young women when he wrote his plays. I hereby am decreeing that element of this discussion irrelevant. That women did not act in Shakespeare's time is a non-factor in the matter of giving women opportunities to act in his plays today.
The fact that women weren't allowed on his stages seems to have mattered little in how Shakespeare peopled his plays; more important was the acting abilities available to him within his companies. Many argue that, contextually, the prohibition on women may have factored into his tendency to have several of his heroines disguise themselves as boys. But was this a logistical matter or his chance to pull off a multilayered joke? After all, he only pulls this trick five times in 38 plays, and, except in Cymbeline, each boy playing a woman disguised as a boy is paired with another boy playing a woman remaining a woman throughout the play. Loves Labour's Lost aside, with its two major female roles and three midmajor women's parts, Shakespeare seems to have proportioned his roles for the ratio of men-to-boy actors in his company. Furthermore, when he wrote history plays, most of the characters were, by default, men (similarly, Steven Spielberg's movie Lincoln is sparse on women's roles).
We can't suppose what Shakespeare might do today, but he was a commercial dramatist first and foremost writing for a company (one in which he held a financial share). That company featured some of his age's best acting talents, including a pair of boys who played the likes of Viola and Olivia and may have later originated the roles of Lady Macbeth and Cleopatra. Today, Shakespeare would be writing plays or screenplays knowing he had access to Amy Adams, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kate Winslet. It was what it was then; it is what it is now.
So let's put behind us the whole "Shakespeare didn't really write for women" posit. He wrote women. More importantly, he wrote people, and because many of the people in his plays need not be gender specific, their parts need not be dramatically altered to be played by a woman.
"I feel like no matter if you're a man or a woman, how well you love a person is the same. The love is going to be the same no matter what gender you are and who you're loving." So said Shauntai Quinlon, a senior at Brooklyn Technical High School who played Othello as Othella, a lesbian, in a class project production. Her Othella was not a prostitute or nun: she was a commanding general, physically strong and Army Strong. She, like the Moor
William Shakespeare was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire and was baptised a few days later on 26 April 1564. His father, John Shakespeare, was a glove maker and wool merchant and his mother, Mary Arden, was the daughter of a well-to-do landowner from Wilmcote, South Warwickshire. It is likely Shakespeare was educated at the local King Edward VI Grammar School in Stratford. Marriage The next documented event in Shakespeare’s life is his marriage at the age of 18 to Anne Hathaway, the…
William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564, in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. The personal history of William Shakespeare is sort of a mystery. No birth records exist. Though there are church records which state that he was baptized on April 23, 1564. So historians consider this his official birth date. Stratford-upon-Avon was near London and at Shakespeare's time, was considered as a market town. It bisected with the River Avon (hence the name). He had 5 siblings; two older sisters and three…
William Shakespeare was great English playwright, dramatist and poet who lived during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Shakespeare is considered to be the greatest playwright of all time. No other writer’s plays have been produced so many times or read so widely in so many countries as his. William Shakespeare was born in Stratford in 1564. He was one of eight children. When William Shakespeare was about seven years old, he probably began attending the Stratford Grammar School…
William Shakespeare was a poet and playwright from England. Although his actual birthdate is unknown, most scholars believe he was born close to April 23, 1564. Shakespeare was baptized at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon in England on April 26, 1564. He was the third child of John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. John Shakespeare worked as a leather merchant and his wife, Mary Arden, was a local landed heiress. William had two older sisters, Joan and Judith, and three younger brothers, Gilbert…
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright and has been regarded as the greatest and most influential playwright in the English language. He was born on the 26th of April, 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon, England to John Shakespeare and Mary Arden. He was one of six children, with three younger brothers, Gilbert, Edmund and Richard and two older sisters, Judith and Joan. William and his brothers received a free education at King Edward Vl Grammar School due to his father’s election as an…
England. Which molded Shakespeare into changing how plays were produced. He had a "devotion to character development, stage direction, and mood-setting props, he combined lifelike realism with style to produce 38 plays coveted by actors and audiences alike." Paraphrase: In this section of the article, it talks about William Shakespeare's life. Where and what date he was born. It also talks about who his father was and what he did for a living. Tells the reader about how Shakespeare did not go to college…
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare was the greatest playwright the world has ever known! His talent with using the English language has never had any competition, not even today. With his wonderful talent he has produced thirty-seven plays. Although Shakespeare has died more than four hundred years ago he is still very famous around the world today. William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564. He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in England. The people of England still…
change. The other option is that new words are being created all the time- Shakespeare was making up words himself at times when no existing words would serve his purpose. Shakespeare’s work is full of words that are in the way out of language. As well as reflecting the changing language of his period, Shakespeare’s work has a considerable influence on contemporary English. Many of the words and idioms that were new when Shakespeare was writing have found their way into the standard vocabulary of the…
William Shakespeare William Shakespeare Task 1 Stratford-upon-Avon, UK 1564 he was born He was born in Stratford-upon-Avon in the year 1564. April 23, 1616 he was 52 when he died Shakespeare died on April 23rd, 1616 at the age of 52. He lived in Stratford-upon-Avon for most of his life. He had six siblings altogether, three sisters and three brothers. Hamnet Shakespeare, Judith Quiney, Susanna Hall were his children. He married Anne Hathaway In the year 1582 His parents were John Shakespeare and…
William Shakespeare was great English playwright, dramatist and poet who lived during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Shakespeare is considered to be the greatest playwright of all time. No other writer’s plays have been produced so many times or read so widely in so many countries as his. William Shakespeare was born in Stratford in 1564. He was one of eight children. When William Shakespeare was about seven years old, he probably began attending the Stratford Grammar…