A women standing looking toward the sky with papers floating down all around her.
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Virgins to Villains: My Journey with Shakespeare’s Women

Created and performed by Robin Goodrin Nordli
Directed by Penny Metropulos
May 16 – July 19, 2024 Thomas Theatre

The women of Shakespeare—from an insider

In this witty, insightful, and revealing one-woman show, actress Robin Goodrin Nordli draws from her experiences of performing in 61 productions of 30 plays by William Shakespeare. From the innocent virgins of her past to the vindictive villains of her present, Robin explores her own life through the prism of her relationship with Shakespeare’s women.

 

Approximate running time: 1 hour and 15 minutes, with no intermission.

Suitability Suggestions
Virgins to Villains is a charming introduction to the women in Shakespeare’s plays and is suitable for all playgoers.

For additional content warnings regarding violence or graphic depictions that may be upsetting to some audience members, please see our Content Warnings page (may contain spoilers).
Accessibility
The Thomas Theatre is outfitted with an elevator to the theatre level.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is committed to accessibility. We recognize the needs of persons with disabilities and strive to make our facilities and productions accessible to all. Please visit our Accessibility page for details about 2024 programs and services as they develop.

Immerse

Robin Goodrin Nordli
Playwright’s Notes

Virgins to Villains: My Journey with Shakespeare’s Women is a fairly accurate title for what you’ll see in my show. I am primarily a professional actor, and over the span of my career, I’ve been lucky enough to have appeared in 61 productions of 30 different plays by William Shakespeare, performing 51 female roles, 29 male roles and 2 … airy spirits (and hopefully still counting). I have done many other plays by other authors too in my career, but I have a particular passion for Shakespeare, and an even more particular passion for Shakespeare’s female characters.

Over the years, I have followed many male actors who have written and performed one-person Shakespeare shows, but I have found very few women who have done them. I wanted to help fill that void. I decided to take my own life journey and put it through the prism of some of the female Shakespearean characters I have played, so you can see how they have resonated in my life.

If I was going to do this, I had several goals for the show: I wanted it to be enjoyable for people who know Shakespeare and for those who don’t. It needed to be funny and serious and universally relatable. Above all, I wanted to help demystify Shakespeare and make him more accessible to a contemporary audience.

Lastly, if you are curious about where the title Virgins to Villains comes from, it is this: As a female Shakespearean actor, you start out in your career playing virgins (and Shakespeare wrote some really fabulous ones), and near the end of your career, you graduate to older, more villainous parts. There again, he wrote some fabulous ones—but oh, how I wish he could have written more!

—Robin Goodrin Nordli

Creative Team

Cast

* Member of Actors' Equity Association (AEA)
** AEA Professional Theatre Intern

Understudies

Thomas Theater seating chart.
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Thomas Theater seating chart.

OSF thanks our show sponsors

  • PRODUCTION SPONSOR
  • Bertie Bialek Elliott
    Buffett Fund of the Community Foundation
    for Monterey County
  • PRODUCTION PARTNERS
  • Sid and Karen DeBoer
  • Julian E. Orr and Willie Sue Orr
  • Jim and Kate Wolf-Pizor

OSF's 2024 Season