(David Dewitt’s article appeared in The New York Times July 1, 2016; via Elizabeth Felix.)
Summer Shakespeare festivals across the world are underway, and all of them face a situation that their not-so-resident playwright didn’t anticipate: The scripts are loaded with male roles, and typically the few actresses who are hired have only so much to do.
This season has correctives, like the Public Theater’s all-female production of “Taming of the Shrew,” playing at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival in Garrison, in Putnam County, has also adjusted the imbalance, with an all-female “Macbeth” as its tragedy and a more traditional “As You Like It,” with the female leading role of Rosalind, as its comedy.
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