As we prepare for a peaceful transfer of power after next week's presidential election, San Diego State theater students are getting ready for a brutal takeover. They are in rehearsal for six beers Julius Caesar. This play exploring politics, ambition, conspiracies and a bloody coup d'état takes on a special significance during a fierce election season. This production has another special twist. It is being performed by an all-female cast. I spoke about the production with deletion -- welcome to the program. I remember performing Shakespeare with an all girl cast but that was at my old girl high school. What gave you the idea to do Julius Caesar with the female cast. I get asked this a lot. I am the artistic director where our mission is to create more honest and diverse images of women for culture. One of the things I've noticed in my work at Moxie is young, male actors tend to be more confident in auditions than young female actors under 30. A part of that is because the have more opportunities in their training. When the department selects a Shakespeare as a part of their season, that means in our case with Julius Caesar, there are 17 actors. Only two are female. It is important to me as an artistic leader to provide opportunities to young FEMA artists whenever I am giving the opportunity. That is one of the reasons that I decided to do the play with an all-female cast. The other reason is because when I was a young FEMA Drive student I was always heartbroken when the department did a Shakespeare because I knew there would be a season of place and a dozen male roles and only a handful of female roles. It always made me feel like a second-class citizen because sometimes they with their weight bone into an overly sweet female version and change all the pronouns. I wasn't interested in changing the pronouns but interested in doing the play straight and providing opportunities for young female artists. We're so used to hearing these characters in Julius Caesar. Julius Caesar, Brutus Mike Anthony. They sound a certain way. Thunders, opens graves and rulers at the lion at the capital. Yet prodigious grown and fearful as the strange eruptions are. Let it be who it is. Romans now have fumes and lambs. Our father's mines are dead and we are governed by her mother's spirits. With the female cast, they will sound much different. How else, Delicia, does this play become new? One of the things is how many times the characters both male and female referred to women as weak or cowardly. And those lines might he heard in any way in this context. You were selected as director of the year by the San Diego theater critic Circle. You also had a successful summer codirecting the musical, ruthless. What she back to SDSU? I am interested in the next generation of young artists and what they are learning. One of the things I am noticing with this cast of young women is that already over these six weeks, I can see them taking ownership of their own artistry ringing their own best work all the time. That is one of the things I hope they will continue to develop whether they are actors or engineers. People are familiar with the fact that many Shakespeare plays are set in different time periods. Where issuers that? I say then and now. I was drawn the line between Rome, England and 21st century America. Was it a deliberate choice to have this at the same time as the election? It was by DJ Hopkins but when we say we are in the middle of a very important election, we are considering the leaders we want to have an wife -- why. It's been a long and brutal process where power structures have been questioned. Alliances have shifted. There is a deep distrust of elected leaders many deep skepticism about the lines of patriotism and personal ambition and those things resonate with a production of Julius Caesar. You will be showing women in traditionally male roles and showing these women actors doing everything female actors did. It is amazing how true to the characters these young women are. It's no different for the all-male cast. The work has been all about making the characters believable and playing their truths. Brutus is honorable. Caches and seductive. Julius Caesar is arrogant. All of those things are true in this production. I have been speaking with Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, executive artistic director of Roxie theater and directing Julius Caesar from November 4 through the 13. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.
It's no accident that San Diego State University's theater department is staging "Julius Caesar" during the 2016 presidential election.
Guided by director Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, this re-imagining of Shakespeare's political tragedy was specifically timed to highlight themes of politics and power.
Turner Sonnenberg, the artistic director of Moxie Theatre, added another twist to this show: all the characters are played by women.
Usually, she explained, a Shakespeare play means very few parts for female characters. She wanted to give young women the opportunity to play roles that aren't traditionally open to them.
Sonnenberg, who earlier this year was named director of the year by the San Diego Theatre Critics Circle, spoke to Midday Edition Thursday about the power of women performing Shakespeare, and why "Julius Caesar" is still relevant in today's political climate.
