Female Direction of Shakespeares As You Like It Essays -- Shakespeare

egg-producing(prenominal) Direction of As You Like It In As You Like It, Jaques states that All the innovations a stage,/ And all the men and women in it provided persisters./ They have theyre exits and their entrances,/ And one man in his time plays m all move (II, vii, 138-141). That very well might be true. But if life is a stage traditionally controlled by a man, what parts does that leave for the women of the world? The female answer to this question is that if you dont like your part, change it, and if you dont like the direction, come in someone else. And that is exactly what all-female Shakespe ar does. It explores roles for women, roles that women dont traditionally get to play. All-female productions of Shakespeare, as well as female-directed Shakespeare, differ from tradition productions. distaff-centered shows tend to revolve around the idea that sex activity matters, but it does not matter any more than age, politics, socio-economic concerns, or any other defin ing characteristics found in any given person. Female directors tend to want to stretch the meaning in Shakespeares plays, be radical, new, and expansive. Female directors gravitate toward a conception of the show filled with characters that happen to be specific sexual activitys, not gendered people who happen to be individuals. This makes the theme of the play revolve more around relationships and not around gender stereotypes and a confirmation of traditional gender constructs. Clearly, gender does matter to female directors. However, gender is only another means of adding dimension to a character. For female directors, the characters relationships are more important than their gender, and it is through the exploration of gender that these directors seek to draw limits and expand bo... ...st At Theatre 3. Greenwich Village Gazette. Available online http//www.judithshakespeare.org/main_reviews.htm Merritt, Erin. Personal Interview. November 6, 2002, via email. Neely, hum Thoma s. Lovesickness, Gender, and Subjectivity Twelfth Night and As You Like It. A womens liberationist Companion to Shakespeare. Blackwell Publishers. 2000. Shakespeare, William. As You Like It. The Norton Shakespeare. W.W.Norton & Company, Inc. 1997. Turner, Jeff. As You Like It. On-stage Studies, Vol. 19. University of Colorado. 1996. Werner, Sarah. Shakespeare and Feminist Performance. Routledge. untested York. 2001. Womans Will Website. Brochure. Available Online http//www.womanswill.org/brochure.html Zell, Allison Eve. Measure for Measure Sexual Downplay. TheatreMania.com. Available Online http//www.malialoke.com/gwen/natalie/index.php?x=article_misc01.php