Twelve hours of “Women of Will”: Shakespeare on Trial

Acclaimed actress Tina Packer will perform the Boston-area premier of her original production "Women of Will" at Alumnae Hall. Her performance is part of the Susan and Donald Newhouse Center for the Humanities' Shakespearean Character on Trial program, which will focus on character studies and feature renowned Shakespeare scholars and producers Oct. 15 and 16.

"Women of Will" is the overview of a five-part series that encompasses 12-and-a-half hours of material spanning Shakespeare's entire canon.

But the overview is "a piece in its own right," Packer said. It follows the progression of the women in Shakespeare's plays, in the order in which he wrote their respective pieces. Packer's performance also incorporates personal responses to character study between scenes. In her sidebar commentary, she will share what she gleaned from inhabiting the character through her performance.

"It emerged out of my consciousness," Packer said. "I spent my whole life directing Shakespeare's plays."

In 1994, Packer received Guggenheim and Bunting fellowships to create "Women of Will."

"‘Women of Will' takes on three meanings," Packer said. The word "will" acts as a pun for William Shakespeare and the will to power. There are two or three women to 15 or 20 men in most Shakespeare productions. "[Men] almost inevitably hold the power structures," Packer said. The third meaning takes on the interpretation of will as carnal desire. Packer examines how Shakespeare treats female sexuality.

Packer founded Shakespeare & Company, a theater company based in Lenox, Mass. The company is in its 33rd season. She has served as a director and actor for the company.

"I'm happy to be playing to the Wellesley audience because it has a Shakespeare society," she said.

"[The Newhouse Center's mission is] to take intellectual risks in arts and humanities," Professor of Theatre Studies Deigo Arciniegas said. Two disciplines look at the same subject matter from their respective places.

For Shakespearean Character on Trial, both the English and Theatre Studies departments will examine Shakespeare's characters.

"We're hoping to have scholarly approaches to Shakespeare and the perspective of practitioners to see what shakes out," Professor of English Yu Jin Ko said. "[The audience] can enjoy [‘Women of Will'] as a piece of theater, but also eye-opening educational experience."

Shakespearean Character on Trial also draws from Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Women's and Gender Studies, since Packer's performance takes on a feminist and historical lens for Shakespeare's canon. Packer is a scholar of original stage conditions and is leading an effort to recreate the 1587 Rose Playhouse in Lenox, Mass, according to the Shakespeare & Company website.

Packer hopes her piece will provoke the audience to question what it means to be alive and how one must act.

"I'd like [the audience] to have a strong vision of Shakespeare's plays through women's eyes." she concluded.