Aaron Henne, theatre dybbuk, at UCI, 2024
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"Women are creatures held above." 

"The age of honesty is over."

"Did women really have a Renaissance?" 

This year's Kirk Davis Jr. Annual Public Shakespeare Lecture featured theater dybbuk and Erith Jaffe-Berg (Theater, UC Riverside). Jaffe-Berg, the world's leading expert on Jewish Renaissance theater, gave a lecture on In Defense of Women, a poem about women by Jewish dramatist Leone De' Sommi Portaleon. LA-based theatre dybbuk theatre brought the world of the poem to life through dramatic readings and live music.

In Defense of Women is a great vessel for understanding other historical forces at play--around Catholicism, Protestantism, the politics of the era, the differences between England and Italy, and the treatment of women and women on the stage and off," said artistic director Aaron Henne.

The presentation emphasized de'Sommi's evaluation of women as worthy and desirable in a period when misogyny was often the norm. Sarcastic remarks such as "there's nothing worse than for us women to be widowed" challenged audiences to question their assumptions about women. 

Ditzy female characters on stage hid the reality that women could be business-minded. For example, Doña Gracia Nasi and Doña Abravanel served as powerful leaders in the Jewish community of Mantua. Nasi saved several Jews from the Inquisition through an escape network. Samuel Usque, a Portuguese conversa, described Nasi as "the heart in the body of our people bringing forth into the light the fruit of the plants that lie buried in the darkness."

When asked why he took this project on, Henne said,"I really like drawing out the way in which something can be both ahead of its time and of its time.”

--Jessica Rosenow, New Swan intern

New Swan Shakespeare Center