Nora Theatre Company Presents Tina Packer's WOMEN OF WILL, 10/13-11/6

The Nora Theatre Company will present the culmination of Tina Packer, Founding Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company, in her masterful summation of 40 years immersed in the investigation of all things Shakespeare, Women of Will. A combination of riveting scenes and lively, fascinating analysis, Women of Will explores themes of love, loss, freedom, control, and violence and power through the heroines of Shakespeare's text. Ms. Packer will perform with her acting partner, Nigel Gore. Women of Will is directed by Eric Tucker.

First presented at Shakespeare & Company during the summer of 2010, Women of Will: The Overview is a comprehensive 2-hour production that includes themes from The Complete Journey - the full, five-part opus - and covers the full breadth of Shakespeare's works providing insight into the chronological growth of Shakespeare's portrayal not only of female characters but of the qualities traditionally considered feminine.

Women of Will will be presented at Central Square Theater in a two-part schedule. For the first three weeks, October 13-30, The Overview will be presented. For the final weekend, November 4-6, all five parts of The Complete Journey will be presented over one intensive weekend. Specially priced packages are available, including dinner from restaurants in Central Square, for patrons who wish to attend all five parts of The Complete Journey.

Director Eric Tucker joins forces with Ms. Packer and her acting partner Nigel Gore, tackling Shakespeare's canon. Packer and Gore have performed opposite each other in several productions, including Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (which earned Gore an Elliot Norton Award for Best Actor in 2010), Antony & Cleopatra, Hamlet, and Coriolanus (Packer's all-male version in England last year) to name a few.

All three artists have been working together for the past two years fine-tuning Women of Will, The Complete Journey guiding it from a workshop piece to a fully-realized, five-part series. In the spring, they tried it out on audiences in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Charlotte, and North Carolina - and the response in all cases was wild enthusiasm, fascination and desire for more. After the run at Central Square Theater, performances will take place in Colorado Springs, with an extensive cross-country tour planned for 2012.

About Women of Will, Ms. Packer states: "When I began work on this piece 12 years ago, through a Guggenheim grant, I knew it was an unusual journey and a hybrid as far as theatrical performance is concerned - it is a performance, but it's also a discussion, a debate (as all Shakespeare's plays are, in essence). The dramatic tension in the piece comes from influences in Shakespeare's life, as well as my desire to show how powerful and distinct the women are in his plays.

Director Eric Tucker adds: "Arguably Tina Packer is the only female director and actor in the world to have taken on this staggering journey: examining some 170 female characters from Shakespeare's cannon (he penned over 700 male characters, by the way) from a female perspective and in chronological order."

An expansive, thrilling, wholly-engrossing look at the female characters in Shakespeare's plays, Women of Will, The Complete Journey is a triumph of theatre. At two hours a piece, each play stands on its own, and together you will understand more about Shakespeare than you ever thought possible. Patrons should feel free to attend The Overview and then decide if they wish to explore Shakespeare further with The Complete Journey. The final week, they may mix and match the parts (see Parts I and III), or see all 5 parts and complete a unique marathon that will leave you feeling stunned, enlightened, and wonderfully alive.

 

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