Severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings issued for Twin Cities metro area

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

Close to 400 years after his death, William Shakespeare's plays still dominate western theater. 

In the Twin Cities, the Guthrie is currently producing 

What Shakespeare doesn't offer, however, are many roles for women. Less than one in five of Shakespeare's characters are women. Even his memorable characters, like Juliet, Ophelia and Lady Macbeth, have fewer lines than their male counterparts.

Three artistic directors joined MPR News reporter Marianne Combs to discuss Shakespeare's female characters, and what can happen when productions flip the script with all-female casts.

Tina Packer, the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company; Sarah Rasmussen, artistic director of the Jungle Theater; and 

, artistic director of Ten Thousand Things Theater Company, offered their views. 

The Jungle's forthcoming production of "Two Gentleman" features an all-women cast, and Ten Thousand Things recently put on an all-female production of "Henry IV: Part I."

"I think he was a very callow youth when he started writing, and he did what young men do: They project upon women. They're either shrews that have got to be tamed, in some way, shape or form, or they're sweet little virgins sitting on a pedestal," Packer said. "I'm slightly exaggerating, but not much."

On the challenge of updating Shakespeare's plays for modern audiences

"I love wrestling with misogyny as a director. As any women director of classical plays, this is what you have to do," Hensley said. "I actually really like wrestling with it because I find that when you do, there's a way to open up the stories and shed new light on them for audiences today."

On casting an all-female production of a Shakespeare play

"What's so rich and interesting to me about having an all-female cast is that multiple things can be true at the same time," Rasmussen said. "I think with an all-female cast there's a multiplicity of ways of seeing and hearing the text."

To hear the full discussion about women in Shakespeare, use the audio player above.

Arts and Culture

Shows

Big Books & Bold Ideas with Kerri Miller

Kerri Miller Feature

MPR News Staff

Author

Less than one in five of Shakespeare's characters are women. Three artistic directors share their views on how modern productions of his plays can highlight women.

Three artistic directors joined MPR News reporter Marianne Combs to discuss Shakespeare's female characters, and what can happen with productions flip the script with all-female casts.

Tina Packer, the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company; Sarah Rasmussen, artistic director of the Jungle Theater; and Michelle Hensley, artistic director of Ten Thousand Things Theater Company, offered their views.

On women characters in Shakespeare

A production of Shakespeare's 'Romeo and Juliet'

Highlighting the women in Shakespeare's plays

Go Deeper.

Like this?