Carol Lashof and Libby Vega aren’t ashamed to reveal their infatuations with the “dead white guys” who populate the Western Canon.
The founders of Berkeley theater company Those Women Productions cut their teeth on Shakespeare, Homer and Sophocles. Now, instead of shunning the classic works, the avowed feminists read between the lines of their favorite texts. They pull out the subplots that resonate with them and the characters they believe deserve more airtime. … READ MORE
Running August 25-September 11, 2016, Those Women Productions will stage the world premiere of Margaret of Anjou at Live Oak Theatre at the corner of Shattuck & Berryman in Berkeley’s “gourmet ghetto” neighborhood. For this, their fourth show, Those Women Productions joins forces with British playwright Lauren Jansen-Parkes and their favorite Dead White Guy, William Shakespeare, to tell the hidden story of Margaret of Anjou who ruled England during the Wars of the Roses and was Commander-in-Chief for the House of Lancaster (inspiration for the “Lannisters” in George R. R. Martin’s “The Game of Thrones”). Combining original material with text adapted from Shakespeare’s Henry VI plays and Richard III, Jansen-Parkes has wrought a new Shakespearean history play that brings Margaret to the center of the stage.
Margaret of Anjou is directed by Libby Vega. It features Maria Grazia Affinito* as Margaret, Bobby August Jr*, Ed Berkeley, Lily Tung Crystal*, Sharon Huff*, Melissa Locsin*, Norman Patrick Johnson, Eric Newman*, Karl Schackne, and Nic Sommerfeld.
The production team includes Bert van Aalsburg*, Monica Bowker, Arashi Cesana, Jane Davis, Eli Goodfriend, Blair Fullerton, Carol Lashof, Megan Messinger, Genevieve Perdue, Samuel Raskin, Audrey Ronningen, Sydney Schwindt, and Suzanne Vito.
*Member, Actors’ Equity Association.
Margaret of Anjou is an Equity-approved project.
Four hundred years after his death, William Shakespeare lives and joins forces with Those Women Productions to stage:
Those Women Productions practices Radical Hospitality:
Everyone is invited regardless of ability to pay
This summer THOSE WOMEN PRODUCTIONS presents MARGARET OF ANJOU written by Lauren Jansen-Parkes and William Shakespeare, and directed by Libby Vega. This world premiere drama explores the nature of power, and how it is wielded by and against women. In his four plays about the Wars of the Roses, Shakespeare kept the powerful Queen of England, Margaret, firmly in the background. Now, Those Women Productions and playwright Lauren Jansen-Parkes join forces with their favorite dead white guy to tell you her story. MARGARET OF ANJOU illuminates a world of political intrigue and armed rebellion, where a naïve princess must become a military commander as the English monarchy teeters on the brink of destruction.
MARGARET OF ANJOU features Maria Grazia Affinito* as Margaret, Bobby August Jr*, Ed Berkeley, Alexaendrai Bond, Lily Tung Crystal*, Sharon Huff*, Norman Patrick Johnson, Eric Newman*, Karl Schackne, and Nic Sommerfeld.
Production Team: Bert van Aalsburg*, Arashi Cesana, Jane Davis, Molly Fullerton, Carol Lashof, Megan Messinger, Genevieve Perdue, Samuel Raskin, and Audrey Ronningen.
*Member, Actors Equity Association.
MARGARET OF ANJOU is an Equity-approved Project
… is Linda Cleary. She invites you to explore her work here: https://dayoftheartist.com/
… is William Newton. He invites you to explore his work at: http://www.wnewtonphotography.com/
Thank you to all who have supported us! We appreciate everyone who came to our shows and donated to our IndieGogo campaign. Your generous contributions gave us the funds to continue practicing radical hospitality: everyone is welcome regardless of ability to pay.
Those Women Productions is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas. Learn more here: Support Those Women Productions
After very successful runs of our 2015 productions, In Plain Sight and Disclosure, we’ve been immersed in planning our next project. Stay tuned for news of our next big theatrical adventure coming in summer 2016 to Live Oak Theater in Berkeley. .
The press has a few things to say about Those Women:
Lily Janiak of the SF Chronicle, in a Datebook feature on Witch Hunt: “‘Witch Hunt’ gives Tituba hopes and fears, virtues and flaws. It gives her goals, and it makes her strategic in pursuit of them. In short, it makes Tituba a person.”
“‘Witch Hunt’ is an important and timely production,” writes Jordan Freed in Theatrius.
Carol S. Lashof on the founding of Those Women Productions and the process of writing Witch Hunt, in the magazine 48Hills: “’We were frustrated trying to get our stories made, so rather than rant and rave we started making our own theater.’”
Fritz Mad’Laine writes of Witch Hunt in Theatrius: “The question of how to tell an unrecorded story plagues artists and historians alike. At Salem’s notorious trials, Tituba was the first to confess to practicing witchcraft—but we know little else about her. In Arthur Miller’s classic “The Crucible,” she appears as a victim of the pilgrims’ manipulation, but Lashof portrays her as the master of her own fate.”
“[Carol and I] have the same feeling that we want our audiences to take away. And her job is to convey that feeling on the page, and my job is to stand that feeling up and put it into action.” – Director Elizabeth Vega on collaboration with Lashof for Witch Hunt, in an interview with KPFA.
“You think about how much you think you know…I was mind-blown as to [Tituba’s] story’” – Witch Hunt actor Renee Rogoff on playing Tituba, interviewed on KPOO.
“Most of what’s in popular [on the Salem witch paniic] is a gross distortion of the historical record,” says playwright Carol S. Lashof of her new play Witch Hunt, in an interview on KALW.
Lily Janiak lists UNQUESTIONED INTEGRITY as a Datebook Pick in the San Francisco Chronicle: “Those Women Productions offers a chance to account for how much or how little we’ve progressed since [since the Anita Hill-Clarence Thomas hearings] in 1991.”
“Marisela Treviño Orta conjures [a] supernatural border,” writes Carly Van Liere in Theatrius’s review of WOMAN ON FIRE.
Lily Janiak of the San Francisco Chronicle profiles our West Coast premiere of WOMAN ON FIRE and interviews playwright Marisela Treviño Orta: “Everything that happens along the border, it’s all connected.…The border is something that we have to grapple with as a society.”
“‘SHIFTING SPACES’ is so much more than an excellent feminist perspective on self image and determination…Characters transcend the stage, touchingly, as they search for and discover new identities,” writes Owen Brunell in Theatrius.
“Shakespeare would have been proud to see his work take on new life in MARGARET OF ANJOU,” says The Daily Californian.
Lily Janiak of the San Francisco Chronicle profiles Artistic Director Libby Vega: ““There can be a tendency to say, ‘If their stories were interesting, we would know them already.’” But, Vega continues, “just because the story’s not being told doesn’t mean the story’s not there.'”
About MARGARET OF ANJOU, Sam Hurwitt of The Mercury News writes: “the experiment of creating the illusion of a Shakespeare play all about Margaret is a success.”
Berkeleyside features Those Women Productions: “Carol Lashof and Libby Vega aren’t ashamed to reveal their infatuations with the “dead white guys” who populate the Western Canon.”
BEST OF THE EAST BAY: On the occasion of our first birthday in 2015, The East Bay Express named us “Best Year-Old Theater Company.”
Theater critic Sam Hurwitt described our production of IN PLAIN SIGHT as “a provocative mix of voices and perspectives on these classic tales that may inspire the viewer to look back at the originals with new eyes.”
The Dramatist Magazine lauds Those Women for joining the fight for gender parity, “turn[ing] patriarchy on its ear.”
Our production of DISCLOSURE was highlighted in the San Francisco Chronicle’s feature on the “hot SF scene” at PianoFight.
About our inaugural production in 2014, the Daily Californian wrote: “JUST DESERTS is offering something surprisingly new, and drawing a new audience. It is absolutely worth seeing, with or without a grasp of Greek mythology. This play works on multiple levels, and satisfies as diverse an audience as it attracts.”
JUST DESERTS was also an Editor’s Pick of Theatre Bay Area Magazine, where critic Lily Janiak wrote, “Lashof ingeniously channels both what many treasure about Greek mythology–its pitting of evenly matched foes in debates that dig deeper and deeper as combatants seem to be going in circles–while also skewering its misogyny.”