Performing Arts Spotlight: Women of Will

If you made plans to leave campus this weekend, cancel them. Don’t have any? You do now. First, you will witness one of the most captivating trumpet prodigies of our time, Bria Skonberg, on Friday at 8 p.m. in the Mahaney Center for the Arts (MCA). What’s that, you don’t like Jazz? You will.

The next evening, Saturday at 8 p.m., you will be sitting in Wright Theater, enthralled by Tina Packer’s ‘Women of Will’ as she artfully deconstructs Shakespeare’s most famous female characters in world-class performances that will make you laugh out loud while also considering the Bard from an entirely fresh perspective. After watching Part One of the show, not even this weather will stop you from going to Part Two on Sunday at 7 p.m.

If Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald were one person, that person would be Bria Skonberg. Seriously, after going to her performance, put on “Dream a Little Dream of Me” — the resemblance is uncanny. The Wall Street Journal calls her “one of the most versatile and imposing musicians of her generation.” And although Skonberg may not be Louis reincarnate, she is pretty close.

According to All About Jazz Magazine, “It’s a rare talent that can straddle — and dare request membership in — the trumpet artist continuum emanating from Louis Armstrong ... However, with her bravura performance on ‘So is the Day,’ Bria Skonberg confirms that she is not only indeed a triple threat musician — player, vocalist, and composer — but also that that esteemed lineage, consummate entertainers all, would heartily approve her membership.”

But Skonberg is not just a powerful vocalist, musician and songwriter: she is also a consummate entertainer. She is a young, hip woman who wields a trumpet like Thor wields a hammer.

On Friday, Skonberg will lead her quintet in a dynamic program that includes an ode to Satchmo himself as well as mix of jazz standards and her own original works that explore worldly rhythms and modern jazz variance.

Speaking of powerful women, the incredible scholar and actor, Tina Packer, will perform “Women of Will,” her masterful summation of over forty years spent investigating all things Shakespeare. Through a combination of riveting scenes and trenchant analysis, Packer draws upon her astonishing wealth of knowledge to explore themes of love, loss, freedom, control, violence and power in the heroines of Shakespeare’s texts.

The two consecutive performances, “Force and Heat: The Early Plays” and, “Chaos and Redemption: The Later Plays” will open at 8 and 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday nights, respectively, in Wright Memorial Theatre. The New York Times call this performance by Packer and her costar, Nigel Gore, “Marvelous!” while the Associated Press hails it as “Boundless and irresistible!”

Packer is the founding Artistic Director of Shakespeare & Company. She has directed almost every single Shakespeare play, acted in several and taught the whole canon at over 30 colleges in the U.S., including Harvard, MIT, Columbia and NYU.

Packer began her career in England, where she trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Soon after winning their Ronson Award for Most Outstanding Actor, she became an associate artist of the Royal Shakespeare Company and has since risen to become an authority on everything Shakespeare. She has also proven her acting chops on BBC Television, where she played Dora to Ian McKellen’s “David Copperfield” and was a love interest for Patrick Troughton’s “Doctor Who.”

Packer came to the U.S. in 1974 on a Ford Foundation-funded project to research the visceral roots of Elizabethan theater. Ford Foundation awarded her two subsequent grants to travel the world, looking at the relationship of mind, body, sacred texts, stand-up comedy, voice and actor–audience relationship in her studies. Based on this work, she founded Shakespeare & Company in 1978 at Edith Wharton’s derelict mansion in Lenox, Massachusetts.

“Women of Will” promises to deliver a deeply thought-provoking but accessible performance that delves into our favorite playwright’s feminine side, tracing the developmental arc of his female characters along his own personal journey.

The Bria Skonberg Quintet concert will take place on Friday, Feb. 19, at 8 p.m. in the MCA. “Women of Will” will open at 8 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 20 and 7 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 21 at Wright Theater.

Tickets for either event are only $6 for students (first-years and Febs, watch your email for a free ticket offer). To find more information or purchase tickets, stop by either of the box offices in McCullough or the MCA or visit go/boxoffice.