What if Shakespeare had a sister? What would she have been like? What would her life have looked like? The answers to these questions can be found on Friday night at Urbanite Theatre, with the world premiere of its latest production, Judith. The one-woman play, written by Katie Bender and conceived and developed with the lead actress Livy Scanlon, focuses on the journey of Judith, William Shakespeare's fictional sister in Elizabethan England.

“Judith is a solo show that revolves around the concept of ‘what if Shakespeare had a sister?’,” says Summer Wallace, Producing Artistic Director at Urbanite Theatre. “Judith is Shakespeare's sister and she’s actually dressed in drag to impersonate Shakespeare and is heading to London to save her brother’s reputation. Once there, she pursues work as the poet himself and discovers the pleasures and pitfalls of passing as the bard in a patriarchal and politically-charged, divided nation.”

Judith is just one of three world premieres in Urbanite’s 10th season, which features four mainstage productions. In many ways, it’s an example of what Urbanite wants to do, not only artistically, but as a business: Urbanite Theatre strives to bring new work to light. It’s one of the main missions of the company and a large part of bringing new and interesting theater to the Gulf Coast. Urbanite’s world premiere of Judith is a collaboration with The Hanover Theatre Repertory in Worcester, Massachusetts, of which Scanlon is the Artistic Director. Judith will have a full run at Urbanite Theatre, before heading up to the Hanover Theatre and Conservatory in April. As a result, the two theaters will share production costs and will both feature Scanlon as Judith and Brendon Fox as the director.

Judith is truly meant for all to enjoy. Although the play is set in Elizabethan England, it is full of modern personality and is not told entirely in old English. “Where I think Katie, the playwright, has done such a wonderful job is that you don’t have to have ever heard the name William Shakespeare to be fascinated by this story of this young woman pretending to be her brother,” says Wallace. “We see Judith gain agency when she’s masquerading as a man–it’s the only way she’s listened to and taken seriously. She gains ownership of things that she doesn’t have outside of that persona.”

January 5 to February 18, Urbanite Theatre, 1487 2nd Street, Sarasota, 941-321-1397. 

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