PLAY BY THE BOOK The Dark Lady by Jessica B. Hill Originally commissioned by and with continued support from Winnipeg’s Shakespeare in the Ruins (SIR)

RODRIGO BEILFUSS DIRECTOR JESSICA B. HILL EMILIA BASSANO AND PLAYWRIGHT Rodrigo is the Artistic Director of Winnipeg’s leading classical theatre, Jessica wrote and performed the original draft of The Dark Lady for Shakespeare in the Ruins (SIR), a company dedicated to immersive Here for Now Theatre in June-July 2020. It began as a short narrative experiences through promenade stagings at the picturesque Trappist woven between Shakespeare’s and Bassano’s poetry. Through a series Monastery Heritage Park. In 2019, Rodrigo was the assistant director of of supported workshops this past year, The Dark Lady has evolved to Stratford’s The Front Page. As an actor at Stratford between 2016 and become Jessica’s first full-length play. 2018, Rodrigo played Angelo in The Comedy of Errors, Young Siward in Stratford: Jessica was set to appear as Lady Anne in Richard III, Helen in Macbeth, Frank Lubey in All My Sons, Fellow Countryman in The Aeneid, All’s Well That Ends Well and Marianne in The Miser in the Stratford Festival’s Jeweller in , Tomazo de Piracquo in The Changeling and 2020 season. Past Stratford credits: Bess/Anne (Mother’s Daughter); Ann Small Investor/Press Agent in The Madwoman of Chaillot. Elsewhere: Putnam (The Crucible); Antipholus of Syracuse (The Comedy of Errors); Selected acting: (Bravura Theatre), Sea Wall (Theatre by the Emily (Brontë: The World Without); Gabriel/Beelzebub (Paradise Lost); Isabella (The Changeling); River), The Merchant of Venice (Shakespeare in the Ruins), The Winter’s Tale (Tom-Tom), Lydia Lubey (All My Sons); Lola (Bunny); Dame Pliant (The Alchemist). Elsewhere: Mother’s Measure for Measure (LAMDA). Selected directing: Love’s Labour’s Lost (UW), Hamlet (SIR), Daughter (Soulpepper); The Play’s the Thing, An Enemy of the People (Segal Centre); The Lungs, Cock, Generous and Bull (TBTR), The Duck Variations, Pariah, About Love & Champagne Bacchae (Centaur Theatre); The Lady Smith (Black Theatre Workshop); Scapin, Much Ado About (Fancy Bred) and (assistant director – RMTC). Training: The University of Winnipeg, Nothing (Repercussion Theatre). Film/TV: Jessica is currently a recurring character on Five Days LAMDA, Birmingham Conservatory, Langham Directors’ Workshop. Online: rodrigobeilfuss.com; at Memorial (Carlton Cuse/John Ridley), Kings of Napa and The Boys, season 3. Past TV credits: @RBeilfuss; shakespeareintheruins.com What We Do in the Shadows; On the Basis of Sex; Slaxx; 19-2; Hero: The Life and Times of Ulric Cross; Assassin’s Creed: Origins; 30 vies; The Battle of Wills. Training: Birmingham Conservatory; McGill University; Dawson College. Awards: Mary Savidge Award (2016); Elsa Bolam Award (2006); Brian Cloutte Award (2005). Teaching: Jessica co-teaches Shakespeare and Chekhov at the National Theatre School. Also: Catch a staged reading of another play she’s working on, MICHAEL HART STAGE MANAGER In Search of Catharsis, part of Here for Now Theatre’s New Works Festival, September 1 to 11. 2021: Stage manager of Why We Tell the Story. 25th season. Stratford: Online: www.jessicabhill.com, Insta: @jessicabhill 24 seasons at the Stratford Festival including Little Shop of Horrors, The Rocky Horror Show, Timon of Athens, The Madwoman of Chaillot, The So much love and gratitude to the Stratford Festival, SIR, Kate Hennig, MAP, SotS, Fiona Mongillo, Adventures of Pericles, Hay Fever, Blithe Spirit, The Tempest starring and everyone who has supported The Dark Lady’s journey and continued development. , The Importance of Being Earnest, King Lear, , The Duchess of Malfi, The Swanne Trilogy, amongst others. Theatre Credits (selected): Heisenberg, Liv Stein (Canadian Stage); Constellations (Centaur/Canadian Stage); Body Politic (Buddies); The Death of the King (Modern Times); The Winter’s Tale (Groundling); RYLAN WILKIE Bombay Black (Factory); Manon, Sandra and the Virgin Mary (Pleiades); Stratford: The Crucible, The Neverending Story, Henry VIII, To Kill a Saint Carmen of The Main (NAC/Canadian Stage); (NAC); Mother Courage and Mockingbird, Julius Caesar, Timon of Athens, The Madwoman of Chaillot, Her Children (NAC/MTC); Real Live Girl (MTC); Fully Committed, Silence, Einstein’s Gift (Grand Shakespeare in Love, The Hypochondriac, Pericles, The Alchemist, Theatre); Wit (Centaur); Hamlet (Neptune). Christina, The Girl King, Alice Through the Looking-Glass. Elsewhere: Lion in Winter (Grand); Am I Not King? (Zone 41); Enron (Theatre Calgary); Beyond the Farm Show (Blyth); The Story (Theatre Columbus); Blue Planet (YPT); Macbeth, Mother Courage (Caravan Farm); A Doll’s House (Globe); East of Berlin, The December Man, Around the World in 80 Days, KATE HENNIG DRAMATURGE Shakespeare’s Dog (ATP). Film/TV: Charity, Homefront, Blue Smoke, Kate is an actor, playwright, director, and teaching artist. Kate’s plays have The Secret of the Nutcracker, See This Movie. Training: NTS. Awards: had the great good fortune to be supported by the Stratford Festival, Stratford’s Award; Betty Mitchell Award for Vincent in Brixton. Online: Instagram and to have the enthusiastic appreciation of Festival audiences. The Last @wilkierylan. Wife premièred at the Stratford Festival in 2015, and has since had more than a dozen productions across Canada and the United States, and as far away as Sydney, Australia. The Virgin Trial won the Carol Bolt Award for Best New Play 2017, and was short-listed for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama. Mother’s Daughter premièred at Stratford in 2019, and subsequently played Soulpepper Theatre in Toronto. For the Shaw Festival, Kate has translated and adapted a widely acclaimed version of Cyrano de Bergerac, as well as Oscar Wilde’s stories for children, Wilde Tales. Kate’s plays are published by Playwrights Canada Press. Kate is the Director of Artist Development for the Shaw Festival. katehennig.com.

PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTES Out of curiosity, I decided to read all of Shakespeare’s sonnets while preparing for rehearsals in 2020. When I reached the so-called “Dark Lady” ones, I felt like I was reading them for the first time. I was struck by how jealous, violent and cruel they were: a side to Shakespeare we never really talk about. How strange to spend that much time and energy writing rhyming hate-poetry! Who hurt you, Bill? What’s her side of the story? I decided to go on an exoneration quest. Enter Emilia Bassano, the closest contender for “the Dark Lady.” Emilia’s life story somehow encompasses the breadth of Shakespeare’s work. It is truly remarkable, and the more I learned, the more it gave me goosebumps. But it wasn’t until I read her poetry (because, yes, she wrote too) that the floor caved in underneath me. There was something about her strong and fervent female voice... It was shades of Kate, Beatrice, Rosalind, Juliet, Paulina and Cleopatra, all in one. Her infinite variety. What if these two great minds did more than just cross paths? Emilia Bassano was the first Englishwoman to publish her work as a professional poet. Her book of poems is filled with letters of appeal to powerful women. She wanted to create a community of female patrons, supporters and readers, at a time when such a concept didn’t even exist. I’ve spent the year falling in love with Bassano and what she was desperately trying to accomplish. This play is my attempt to bring her out of the dark, and give her the chance to reclaim her story.

Support for The Laboratory is generously provided by The Dalio Foundation and an anonymous donor. The Foerster Bernstein New Play Development Program is generously supported by Daniel Bernstein & Claire Foerster.