Overview: On February 13, 2006, David Strathairn took part in Shakespeare Society's Boys Will Be Girls presentation. The event was an irreverent examination of cross-dressing and sexual role-playing in Shakespeare, also featuring actors Jefferson Mays, Michael Cumpsty and Hamish Linklater. The 90-minute presentation looked at single-sex casting, informing understanding of how Shakespeare and his actors originally attempted to portray, understand, and invent what it means to be a woman. Works included a male Lady Macbeth as she unsexes, a man playing a woman playing a man as Rosalind lets Orlando know what women want and, in a contemporary twist, members of The Queen's Company highlighting from their acclaimed all-women 2005 production of The Taming of the Shrew. The event also included commentary by Dympna Callaghan, Syracuse University professor and author of Shakespeare Without Women.

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Shakespeare Society (off site)