A Note from the Director
 

Imogen, the main character in this adaptation, is deemed by scholars to be  “Shakespeare’s perfect woman”, but why? Taking a closer read at this script and story, she is really just an amalgamation of all his other female characters. She is surrounded and used by the men in her life and is never truly given a moment of her own clarity, her own moment to look at what is happening to her and have some agency in her life. In having my own agency in adaptation, I took this moment to take apart the script, rearrange it, and talk about the world Imogen finds herself in and what it might take for someone in her circumstance to take a closer look at her life. 

The perfect way to do this was to expand the moment where Imogen falls under a sleeping curse via poison. Focusing on the moments where Imogen is on her own for the first time in her life and using that new independence and the clarity that comes with it, while pairing it with the lucidity that can only come from nightmares and deep sleep, brought me to this version of the adaptation. Building a nightmare version of the world Imogen lived in and exploring the conversations and moments that have brought her to this juncture not only allowed myself to explore my directing and collaboration aesthetics, but also opened up a lot of interesting conversations within the rehearsal process. 

Exploring the incredibly modern medium of virtual reality and 3D video models along with the classic text and language of Shakespeare has been eye opening for the team as collaborators and I hope you as the viewer. The relationship between audience and creator has changed wildly over the course of the last year and I hope you will humor us as we continue to discover what technology and individual viewership can do for theatre moving forward. 

 

Thank you and Enjoy!