In The Queen's Company, there's no question that women rule. This all-female classical theater company will perform Sir Patient Fancy, a witty tale of defiant women and the men who love them, at the Wild Project in New York City from March 15 to April 5.
Sir Patient Fancy was written in the late 17th Century by Aphra Behn, England's first professional female playwright. This play will give you a glimpse of an England that was far less proper and far more lusty and flamboyant than any Masterpiece Theatre production would ever allow, offering an outrageous ride through the backstreets and bedrooms of London, full of amorous fops, saucy wenches, mistaken beds and narrow escapes.
Aphra Behn wrote in the late 1600s, not an easy time to be a female playwright. But she triumphed through her humor and wit, surprising audiences with characters and stories unique for her time. And who better to perform a play by this trail-blazing woman than the good women of The Queen's Company?
The cast includes Tiffany Abercrombie, Kelsey Arendt, Virginia Baeta, Karen Berthel, Julia Campanelli, Amy Driesler, Sarah Hankins, Sarah Joyce, Natalie Lebert, Elisabeth Preston and Antoinette Robinson.
Artistic Director Rebecca Patterson founded the all-female company in 2000, and she's directed a total of 13 productions in which women play both male and female roles. The company advocates gender-blind casting in classical theater.
Patterson's creative team includes Matthew J. Fick (Set and Light Design), Kristina Makowski (Costume Design), Amy Altadona (Sound Design) and Judi Lewis Ockler (Fight Choreography).
Patterson says, "There are many compelling reasons for all-female casts in classical plays, the most obvious being the wealth of untapped talent and interpretations of our female actors. When we start talking about the humanity of a character with their own particular mix of male and female characteristics, that's when things become exciting."
The Queen's Company has also performed Behn's The Rover, about a woman on the run, which is perhaps her most well-known play. After Behn's death, the scandalous nature of most of her works caused them to fall out of favor. But in the early 20th century, those plays began to attract renewed attention and interest.
Behn was famously eulogized by author Virginia Woolf: "All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn which is, most scandalously but rather appropriately, in Westminster Abbey, for it is she who earned them the right to speak their minds."
The Queen's Company will pay homage to Behn by speaking her witty dialogue every Wednesday through Sunday from March 15 to April 5.
For more information, be sure to visit queenscompany.org.
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