cover of episode 'Men On Boats' Stages American History With Gender-Bending Twist

'Men On Boats' Stages American History With Gender-Bending Twist

2017/9/17
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Under the Radar Podcast

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In Shakespeare’s time, all the world was a stage, but only men were actors. The play “Men on Boats,” a comedic take on the real-life 1869 expedition led by John Wesley Powell to chart the Colorado River, flips that script with a story of determined male explorers performed by a cast of multi-gendered actors. The play has received plenty of attention for its inventive casting, its contemporary language and its commentary, and it has received critical acclaim from the New York Times and the Chicago Tribune. Boston's SpeakEasy Stage is currently producing "Men on Boats" at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. Guests: Dawn Simmons, director of the SpeakEasy Stage production of “Men on Boats”; Jaclyn Backhaus, playwright of “Men on Boats"; and Alicia Anstead, associate director for programming at the Office for the Arts at Harvard University, editor-in-chief and co-founder of the student-driven Harvard Arts Blog, and Under the Radar’s arts contributor.