{"id":47868,"date":"2017-08-03T08:18:37","date_gmt":"2017-08-03T15:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/?p=47868"},"modified":"2017-08-04T11:14:26","modified_gmt":"2017-08-04T18:14:26","slug":"henry-v-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/henry-v-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"Shakin\u2019 up Shakespeare: Female portrays Henry V in NAU\u2019s newest theatre production"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Carly Banks<\/strong>
\nNAU Communications<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

There\u2019s a first for everything, even if Shakespeare himself didn\u2019t see it coming.<\/p>\n

To what is sure to surprise the great playwright, Henry, of Shakespeare\u2019s famous Henry V<\/em> play, will be portrayed by a female. After all, since the play was written in 1599, women have gained property\u00a0rights, the right to vote, reproductive\u00a0rights and the right to work for equal pay. So why shouldn\u2019t they get to portray kings?<\/p>\n

\u201cShakespeare’s plays are notoriously male-dominated, and nowhere is that truer than in his medieval history plays,\u201d said director Christina Dennehy<\/strong>. \u201cWe\u2019re about to change all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recent alumna Grace Novak<\/strong> will portray the famous king in Northern Arizona University\u2019s rendition. The Department of Theatre\u2019s<\/a> new summer production company, Crooked Figure Theatre, will debut the play mid-August in Sedona.<\/p>\n

\u201cNovak\u2019s Henry is a powerful woman looking to justify to herself, to her soldiers and to the world that she is a leader who will risk everything to claim what she knows to be hers,\u201d says Dennehy, who is writing a book on Shakespeare and will research his work in London this summer at various libraries and at The National Archives.<\/p>\n

The play tells the story of King Henry V of England and focuses on events before and after the Battle of Agincourt during the Hundred Years\u2019 War.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to play King Henry V as a woman highlights changes that have been prevalent in society,\u201d Novak said. \u201cAs a woman, it has been a true gift to inhabit a character with complex emotion and insurmountable strength. As an actor, I connect with the words of Henry, and I connect with her struggle, despite the fact that the character is traditionally male.\u201d<\/p>\n

Novak, who fell in love with theatre as a child and hasn\u2019t gotten off the stage since, has performed in community theaters and a handful of NAU mainstage productions including Of Mice and Men, Quilters\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Summer and Smoke<\/em>. Earlier this year she was nominated for an Emerging Artist Viola Award.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, choosing to do theatre is studying what it means to be human,\u201d she said. \u201cNow more than ever we are called on as artists to produce works that make us think, make us hurt and make us ask questions\u2014giving those who see us perform the gift of truth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kathleen McGeever<\/strong>, chair for NAU\u2019s Department of Theatre, says students are getting the chance to experience working in a semi-professional production and are putting their skills to the test in an intense fashion.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the re-gendering of the play, we are providing students the opportunity to play roles they wouldn\u2019t have the opportunity to play in a traditional production,\u201d McGeever said.<\/p>\n

Novak said she is honored to be cast in this role and is looking forward to see the story evolve with a female lead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that this play can open people’s minds to what is possible when it comes to theatre, and I can only hope it sets the stage for theatre\u00a0practitioners and artists alike that our world\u2019s history is and can be relevant to the experiences and the struggles we have now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Henry V<\/em> will be performed at 6 p.m. on Aug. 11, 12, 18 and 19 at El Portal Hotel, 95 Portal Lane in Sedona. The production is free and open to the public. No reservations are needed; seating is first come, first serve. Parking is available at El Portal and in nearby lots.<\/p>\n

The production will debut in Flagstaff on Aug. 27 at a to-be-determined location.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carly Banks NAU Communications There\u2019s a first for everything, even if Shakespeare himself didn\u2019t see it coming. To what is sure to surprise the great playwright, Henry, of Shakespeare\u2019s famous Henry V play, will be portrayed by a female. After all, since the play was written in 1599, women have gained property\u00a0rights, the right…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":47870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happenings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}