It would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare. Let me imagine, since the facts are so hard to come by, what would have happened had Shakespeare had a wonderfully gifted sister, called Judith, let us say. […] She died young – alas, she never wrote a word. She lies buried where the omnibuses now stop. […] Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the crossroads still lives. She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here tonight, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed. But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh. (A Room of One’s Own Virginia Woolf:113)

Some of the questions this material forces us to examine are: What social forces drive people into depression and towards addiction and suicide? This piece is an homage to their struggles, their failures, their successes, and ultimately their incredibly rich and full creative, artistic lives as a way for us to reflect on our own lives, how far we have come and how much further we have to go.

**This production is not associated with the National Ophelia Project.