William Shakespeare (writer) was a renowned English poet, playwright, and actor born in 1564 in Stratford-upon-Avon. His birthday is most
commonly celebrated on April 23, which is also believed to be the date he died in 1616.

Shakespeare wrote Julius Caesar in 1599 or 1600, probably for the opening of the Globe Theatre, on the south bank of the Thames. Altogether Shakespeare’s works include 38 plays, 2 narrative poems, 154 sonnets, and a variety of other poems. No original manuscripts of Shakespeare’s plays are known to exist today. It is actually thanks to a group of actors from Shakespeare’s company that we have about half of the plays at all. They collected them for publication after Shakespeare died, preserving the plays. These writings were brought together in what is known as the First Folio (‘Folio’ refers to the size of the paper used). It contained 36 of his plays, but none of his poetry.

Shakespeare died in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 23, 1616 at the age of 52. He is buried in the sanctuary of the parish church, Holy Trinity.

—Courtesy of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

What Is a Matriarchy With(out) Men? Binaries Beware! 
by Naomi Rodriguez

Within our rehearsal process, a sentiment stuck with me that was said by a cast member: “I don’t want the audience to think ‘Where are the men?’” This inspired a continued conversation about how we build a fictional world where we aren’t comparing the ideals of a matriarchy to a patriarchy, especially in a real world where we tend to focus on the latter. And we realized, if we must compare, then where do we start?

“Men at some time are masters of their fates.”  Cassius, Act I, Scene II

In its initial form, Shakespeare wrote this play with only two female characters—Portia and Calpurnia—who are wives to Brutus and Caesar and were originally played by men. Yet, these performances were timely. Ten years before Julius Caesar premiered, England had gone through an attempted coup of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. With this event, Shakespeare had more than just men in mind as this coup had women pitted against each other and challenged the rule of Elizabeth, whose gender identity and marital status was a subject of debate and discomfort on the global and national stage. We all can become masters of our own fates.

In a matriarchy with(out) men, who comes forward? How do we separate ourselves from each other? What identities under a patriarchy have been consistently ignored or thrown aside and in this setting start to rear their heads? Where do you start to align yourself with the privilege of your character in terms of status, ethnicity, physical appearance, and education?

These questions led to conversations about our lives; the cast and creatives looked at depictions of femininity, womanhood, and masculinity throughout history and today. We were reshaping Shakespeare’s ancient dramaturgy to explore what it means for us as we navigate today’s world, trying to redefine identities and expression, releasing ourselves from the limits of binaries. But even here in this performance, we see how persistent binaries can be. Gender is strongly defined by different markers in this play, which the text adaptation has brought to light. Thus, intersectionality became the root of our praxis and understanding what kind of matriarchy we were making, binaries beware!

We found intersectionality coming into (the) play through other identity markers. Race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physicality, and class began to manifest in these “all-female” characters through social and political positions—who are the military officials, the politicians, the townspeople, the spouses? Who has the power and who does not along different ways of measuring value? We began to see a gradation of woman-ness happening in this matriarchy. Men are not present but still individuals get coded as superior/inferior, dominant/submissive, more value/less value, just not along gendered lines.

This also became an exploration where we realized what violence humans are still capable of when we replace some of the common (normalized) systems of value, when we remove the obvious Other. How quickly as a society we devolve into reassigning that value (or lack thereof) to other marginalized communities and individuals. Perhaps this is a warning to us that it is high time we rework our understanding of each other, of ourselves, and of how we categorize and (negatively) respond to perceptions of who belongs and who doesn’t, that tyranny against others who are different from ourselves will only beget more violence.

So much has happened since we cast the show this last spring, so much that has and will affect how we tell the tale, how we shape and nuance the personal stories within that tale, and ultimately, how our audiences will receive it. We can’t change current events or really, change people’s minds about the realities of today, but we CAN get them thinking…about basic human struggles, our faults and foibles, and our hopes and fears, all of which hold as true today as they did in Shakespeare’s time and, indeed, in Caesar’s time.

Here is a play containing some of Shakespeare’s most famous lines:

Et tu, Brute? – Then fall Caesar (Caesar, Act 3, Scene 1)

But for mine own part, it was Greek to me (Casca, Act 1, Scene 2)

Cowards die many times before their deaths, The valiant never taste of death but once

(Caesar, Act 2, Scene 2)

Not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more (Brutus, Act 3, Scene 2)

There is a tide in the affairs of men (Brutus, Act 4, Scene 3)

And some of his most famous speeches:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears (Antony, Act 3, Scene 1)

Men at some time are masters of their fates. The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars

But in ourselves, that we are underlings. (Cassius, Act 1, Scene 2).

I am going to posit that Julius Caesar is a dangerous play. It focuses not on the death of a popular and powerful tyrant, but on the two leaders of a conspiracy to assassinate him and the consequent upheaval of their country. Taking this play out of Rome and setting it in a different time period can be tricky, even though that approach is taken all the time. We have elected NOT to “modernize” the script with references to any particular time period. Shakespeare’s warnings about the dangers and consequences of using violence to achieve political aims are still crystal clear.

~Priscilla Lindsay, Director

This production of Julius Caesar is dedicated to former Chair and Professor of Theatre & Drama Erik Fredricksen, whose legacy and
passion for theatre, stage combat, and leadership live on, in everyone who was fortunate enough to know him.

Anishinaabeg gaa bi dinokiiwaad temigad manda Michigan Kichi Kinoomaagegamig. Mdaaswi nshwaaswaak shi mdaaswi shi niizhawaaswi gii-sababoonagak, Ojibweg, Odawaag, minwaa Bodwe’aadamiig wiiba gii-miigwenaa’aa maamoonjiniibina Kichi Kinoomaagegamigoong wi pii-gaa aanjibiigaadeg Kichi-Naakonigewinning, debendang manda aki, mampii Niisaajiwan, gewiinwaa niijaansiwaan ji kinoomaagaazinid. Daapanaming ninda kidwinan, megwaa minwaa gaa bi aankoosejig zhinda akiing minwaa gii-miigwewaad Kichi-Kinoomaagegamigoong aanji-daapinanigaade minwaa mshkowenjigaade.

The University of Michigan is located on the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe people. In 1817, the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Bodewadami Nations made the largest single land transfer to the University of Michigan. This was offered ceremonially as a gift through the Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids so that their children could be educated. Through these words of acknowledgment, their contemporary and ancestral ties to the land and their contributions to the University are renewed and reaffirmed.

01 – Julius Caesar program