Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender

Visionary theatre artist Lisa Wolpe is perhaps best known as the Producing Artistic Director of the LA Women's Shakespeare Company, the award-winning company that produces professional productions of Shakespeare's plays with an all-female, multiracial ensemble in Southern California. Oregon Shakespeare, Berkeley Rep, Shakespeare & Company, Arizona Theater Company and many other theatres throughout America have featured Ms. Wolpe's talents but Shakespeare and the Alchemy of Gender is a unique, poignant and intense amalgam of all things Wolpe and Shakespeare.

Finding celebration and solace in the words and enchanting power of Shakespeare, Ms. Wolpe explores the courageous, often tragic, always fascinating history of her troubled family–weaving in personal photos, video and glorious passages from 'Hamlet', 'The Merchant of Venice', 'The Winter's Tale' 'Twelfth Night', 'Richard III' and 'Romeo and Juliet'. Similar to a fresh telling of R&J, Ms. Wolpe's story wreaks havoc on the heart as the catastrophic circumstances of her family history would be too much to bear if not for the liberation and catharsis that this valiant performer discovers (and the audience shares) in the telling of it.