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| ON HER SHOULDERS CELEBRATES GEORGE SAND | |
| Posted by: Official_Press_Release 10:34 am EST 02/10/21 | |
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| New Perspectives Theatre Company presents the next reading in our ON HER SHOULDERS program, introducing women playwrights from the past to contemporary audiences Gabriel by George Sand in a new translation/adaptation by Lynn Marie Macy Directed by Lynn Marie Macy; Dramaturgy by Melody Brooks Saturday, February 27 to Wednesday, March 3, 2021 (NY, NY) On Her Shoulders is pleased to present a virtual reading of Gabriel (1839) by George Sand via NPTC's YouTube Channel: NewPerspectivesTC. The script has been newly translated and adapted by Lynn Marie Macy, who also directs. Melody Brooks provides dramaturgy via The Play in Context, which situates the script in its historical time and place. The broadcast begins at 2:00pm on Saturday, February 27 and will be available through midnight on March 3, 2021. Admission is by Donation. R.S.V.P. to OnHerShouldersReservations@gmail.com . " Strange that the most virile talent of our time should be a woman's!" George Sandwas born Armandine Aurore Lucille Dupin in Paris on July 1, 1804 into a quasi noble family. After her father's death, Sand, move with her mother and grandmother to Nohant, France. At the age of fourteen, she was sent to a convent school, but her grandmother called her home, fearing she was becoming too drawn to mysticism. This mystical bent would resurface in Sand's later writing, and is particularly evident in Gabriel. Back on the estate, Sand was encouraged by her tutor to wear men's clothing while horseback riding, and she galloped through the countryside in trousers and a loose shirt, free, wild, and in love with nature. The image of Sand riding free on horseback mirrors the opening image we hear of Gabriel, and the equation of freedom with horseback riding is repeated throughout the play. In time, Sand would become as notorious for her cross-dressing as she was celebrated for her literary achievements. For Sand, however, wearing men's clothing was a statement about freedom and power, and not about her sexual identity. A string of male lovers would later earn her the appellation of "slut" in more conventional circles. At nineteen she married the illegitimate though acknowledged son of a baron and was therefore regarded socially as a "Baroness", an ironical contrast to her Republican political views. In 1830 Sand moved to Paris in search of independence and love, leaving her husband and two children behind. She began writing to earn her living and fell in with a literary crowd, including Jules Sandeau, who became her lover. They collaborated on articles and signed them collectively "J. Sand." When the affair ended and she published her first novel independently in 1832, she took as her pen name "George Sand." That novel, Indiana, brought her immediate fame and is a passionate protest against the social conventions that bind a wife to her husband against her will. It was the beginning of a career that would make Sand the most popular writer (of any gender) in Europe until her death in 1876 and beyond. Although best known for her novels, Sand was no stranger to the Theatre. She acted in her own plays and other people's. She directed actors at every level, from Sarah Bernhardt to enthusiastic amateurs. She designed sets and made costumes, and was familiar with stage lighting and scene changes. Gabriel is one of Sand's earliest plays and it was originally published in serial form as a "play for reading". Sand was unsuccessful in getting it produced, and even tried adapting it in 1850 to be less controversial and gave it a conventional ending. It was not translated into English until 1992 and remained obscure outside of France. In the play, the handsome, heroic heir to a vast estate, raised as a man to follow a man's pursuits and to despise women, is devastated to learn at the age of sixteen that "he" is in fact a "she". Gabriel courageously refuses to give up her male privileges, and her tragic struggle to work and fight and love in all the ways she knows how offers a window into the obstacles faced by Sand herself. LYNN MARIE MACY (Director) is a playwright and director whose work has been staged nationally and internationally. She most recently directed her own original work Jane Austen at Prinny's Palace on Zoom for Theater 2020 in NYC. She also recently directed Uncle John or The Men's Room (Cosmic Orchid); Sappho by Estelle Lewis and Medieval Mothers: plays by Hrosvita and Hildegard von Bingen for On Her Shoulders; and her script Northanger Abbey, A Romantic Gothic Comedy (Theater 2020). Other directing credits include Shakespeare's All's Well That Ends All (Theater Ten Ten), As You Like It (Minnesota Shakespeare Company), her own The Thrice Three Muses and Innocent Diversions, A Christmas Entertainment with Jane Austen & Friends (Distilled Spirits Theatre, Theater Ten Ten). She also directed a staged reading of her new play Doubt & Deliberation at Theatre For The New City. The most recent productions of her plays include Getting Grandma's Goat and The Surprising Measure Of Buried Treasure (The Theater Project, Union, NJ) and The Color Of Vengeance for NPTC and a production at McNeese State University in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Macy is a member of the Dramatists Guild, a member of the NPTC Women's Work LAB, and Resident Playwright and Board President of Theatre 2020. MELODY BROOKS (Director) is an award-winning producer/director, founder and Artistic Director of NPTC. Brooks leads NPTC's Women's Work Project, which develops short and full-length plays by 12-16 members per year, and produces ON HER SHOULDERS, serving as a regular Director/Dramaturg for the program. She has developed and directed numerous award-winning and acclaimed original and classic plays for NPTC and other companies. Brooks was honored in 2018 as a Trailblazing Woman of Theatre for Artistry & Vision by RhythmColor Associates, received the "Spirit of Hope Award" in 2015 from Speranza Theatre Company for her support of women theatre artists for more than 25 years, and was named a "Person of the Year" by NYTheatre.com as a co-founder of 50/50 in 2020: Parity for Women Theatre Artists. She is a member of the League of Professional Theatre Women, and is currently Executive Producer of the LPTW Gilder/Coigney International Theatre Award Program. ON HER SHOULDERS was founded in May 2013 to present rehearsed, staged readings of plays by women from across the spectrum of time, with contemporary dramaturgs contextualizing them for modern audiences. The program was incorporated into NPTC's Women's Work Project and continues to strive to make it impossible for producers and theatre companies to deny or ignore the 1,000-year history and value of women's contribution to the theatrical canon. To date the program has presented 58 plays by 45 writers from the years ca. 955 to 1970. NEW PERSPECTIVES THEATRE COMPANY (NPTC) is an award-winning, multi-racial company performing for the last 30 years in Midtown Manhattan, communities throughout NYC, and as of 2015, internationally. The Company's mission is to: develop and produce new plays and playwrights, especially women and people of color; present classic plays in a style that addresses contemporary issues and restores female theatre practitioners to the Canon; and extend the benefits of theatre to young people and communities in need. Our aim is not to exclude, but to cast a wider net. www.nptnyc.org The Play in Context, the dramaturgical and scholarly presentation component to the program, is sponsored in part by the League of Professional Theatre Women, a non-profit organization promoting visibility and increasing opportunities for women in theatre since 1982. www.theatrewomen.org This program is made possible, in part, with public funds from the NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council. |
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| Link | http://www.theatrewomen.org |
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