Imogen Says Nothing

by Aditi Brennan Kapil

directed by Laurie Woolery

Originally produced at Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven, GT

January 20 to February 11, 2017

About the Premiere Production:

Synopsis: All the world’s a stage, but in Elizabethan England, all the roles are given to men. Enter Imogen, who seizes a wordless walk-on in Shakespeare's new comedy and recasts herself in a ferocious real-life leading role. Imogen Says Nothing is the wildly theatrical and subversively funny tale of an unforgettable creature refusing to let history erase her part.

Artistic Statement: Imogen Says Nothing is a magnificently theatrical and heart-rending work. Against a backdrop of Shakespearean wit and epic Elizabethan revelry, Aditi highlights her singular heroine Imogen, a woman on a quest for a meaningful place in history. Imogen only finds a glimmer of hope—and a means to escape her class and sex—when she lands a brief, non-speaking role in the world premiere of the Bard’s Much Ado About Nothing. This “passport” to Messina briefly opens the door to a world where she might find agency as Hero’s mother—and more permanently, a printed place in the Bard’s stage directions—but the price of her inclusion is higher than she can bear to pay. Filled with sharply observed period stagecraft and caustic contemporary humor, Imogen Says Nothing reveals the costs of exclusion and the struggles of those denied legitimacy in our society.

Grant Statement: The Edgerton New Play Award will allow the playwright and director, and their creative team, more time for artistic exploration.