Excerpted from the text edited and compiled by Karen Ruch.

Queen. Goddess. Nymph. Whore. Puppet.

As an actor who has worked with Shakespeare’s plays since I was 15, I am fascinated by the emotional complexity that has kept us engaged with Will’s words for centuries. As a woman, and therefore an actor with a very narrow roster of roles with which to wrangle, I am even more intrigued by the rank and file of actresses who line up to audition and vie for the handful of roles allotted them. Of course, there are trouser roles for modern actresses, and there are loads of nontraditional and nonbinary ways to cast Shakespeare’s plays to give actors of all genders more opportunities to bite in. 

Nevertheless, Will’s women are a relatively small, if powerful, group of characters. Within that group are incredible roles, parts any actor would be overjoyed to tackle. Some of the women are underwritten. Some are given too little time onstage, with the most interesting stuff happening to them elsewhere and elsewhen. Having played a few of these roles myself, I was hungry for the opportunity to learn more about some of these ladies. 

Years ago, I worked with several talented playwrights to craft an original theatrical work that explored and interpreted nine of Shakespeare’s sonnets. The Sonnet Inspirations show revealed to us how exciting it could be to work with living playwrights to create new works that played with, expanded upon and interpreted these classic plays. I knew then that I wanted to put together a new show about Will’s women, so I once again reached out to a network of playwrights and asked for submissions. 

The parameters were simple. I was looking to cast all women. The central character of the short play must be one of Shakespeare’s characters. The setting could be modern or historical. It could be some part of Shakespeare’s story that Dramatic Publishing we never see onstage, or perhaps something that happens before or after the action of the full play. The characters could be placed into a completely different world or context to work out the conflicts and themes of Shakespeare’s plays. 

The happy results are the plays of this collection. These plays feature great roles for women, which is no small thing, but they also provide audiences and theatre practitioners alike ways to discuss important themes, hopefully leaving everyone with a broader, more flexible understanding of the Shakespeare canon.

In Haircuts, by Barbara Trainin Blank, Anne Boleyn from Henry VIII and Isabella from Measure for Measure meet in a barber shop. The condemned queen and the devout novice discover what they have in common as they discuss the choices they have made, the men in their lives, and how a haircut may help them take control of the rest of their lives.

 Lori Myers’s The Shrew Must Go On finds high-school thespian Melanie Gold suffering from stage fright. She prays for a natural disaster to save her from taking the stage as Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew. She doesn’t quite get her wish—instead, the real Katherine from the 1500s shows up in Melanie’s dressing room to provide her with a pep talk and some sisterly solidarity. 

Sandra Fenichel Asher’s The Nurse’s Rebellion gives the Nurse from Romeo and Juliet a chance to share her strong opinions about the way Shakespeare is writing the play—she even steps off the page to argue with the playwright. Juliet and Lady Capulet are confused by the Nurse’s odd behavior, as they try to stick to the script while Will wrestles with his character’s determination to avert the coming tragedy. 

In Another Conversation, the last thing Gertrude remembers is drinking a toast to Hamlet. Playwright Marjorie Bicknell’s Gertrude finds herself in a mysterious place when Ophelia shows up to set the record straight. 

Sean Adams delivers A Woman’s Battle about the legendary Trojan women, all waiting for their men to return from an ill-fated clash with Achilles and the Greek army. Cassandra is tortured by her visions of the future and Andromache, Helen, and Hecuba fight their own battles—for love, respect, family and survival—behind the walls of Troy. 

Sue Lange resets the conflict of King Lear in The Lear Sisters as a modern battle for power of attorney for their aging father. Gordy wants to control Daddy’s late-night poker games. Reenie wants to marry Eddie. Claudia just wants her father to be happy. 

As She Likes It premiered at Gamut Theatre in Harrisburg, Pa., as part of their Stage Door Series. The staging was simple and fluid—a few chairs and a table. This allowed the characters to drive the show forward and kept the action focused on their words and journeys. We opened with a prologue featuring the entire ensemble speaking words and phrases taken from Shakespeare’s text. The production also featured a dance piece choreographed by Della M. Cowell that explored the destructive dynamic between Tamora and Livinia from Titus Andronicus. 

It is my hope that these plays may offer opportunities for thoughtful scene study, educational exploration, and a larger conversation about how these women’s stories resonate in our current era. 

“As She Likes It” is produced by special arrangement with THE DRAMATIC PUBLISHING COMPANY, INC., of Woodstock, Illinois.