Packer's Shakespeare Book Being Released April 7
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LENOX, Mass. — Tina Packer, Shakespeare & Company’s founding artistic director, actor, writer — and one of the country’s foremost experts on Shakespeare — will launch her new book "Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays" on April 7.
Published by Knopf, "Women of Will" is a fierce and witty exploration — part master class, part brilliant analysis — of the women in Shakespeare’s plays that illuminates Shakespeare’s changing understanding of the feminine and reveals some of his deepest insights.
Packer has synthesized 40 years of teaching, textual analysis and stage experience into "Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays," which charts Shakespeare’s evolution and his increasingly empathetic and nuanced portrayal of his female characters. It follows Shakespeare’s development from youth to enlightened maturity and explores the spiritual journey he undertook.
Most importantly, Packer grapples not only with the language and the historical context of the plays but with them as they were and are actually performed. Packer posits that Shakespeare’s imagination, mirrored and revealed in his female characters, develops and deepens until finally the women, his creative knowledge, and a sense of a larger spiritual good come together in the late plays, making clear that when women and men are equal in status and sexual passion, they can — and do — change the world.
“In many ways I’ve been working on this piece for the whole of my artistic life,” Packer said. “I have to ask the question: Why should a 21st century feminist spend her time with a dead white male? Well the answer is because I grow, expand, understand myself better with every play in the canon I immerse myself in, and have from the time I was a young actor to becoming a director and teacher. With each play, my awareness expands. He says things in such a way that allows me to understand the world — politically, psychologically, physically, poetically, philosophically — which change my personal and creative life.”
Packer’s book signing tour kicks off April 8 with the following itinerary
* April 8: The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington, D.C.
* April 20: The Pearl Theatre, New York, NY (hosted by the Shakespeare Society)
* April 25: Shakespeare & Company, Lenox
* May 19: Modern Theater at Suffolk University, Boston, MA (hosted by the Actor’s Shakespeare Project)
For a complete calendar of Packer’s upcoming book-signing tour and special events visit: http://women-of-will.com/. For information on Shakespeare & Company’s 38th Performance Season visit: www.shakespeare.org.
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