You may have seen the meme. It began to circulate in 2020, shortly after COVID shut the world down: “Shakespeare wrote King Lear during the Black Plague. What are YOU going to accomplish during COVID?” For many theater artists, it was a call to keep producing art during the pandemic. For playwright Talene Monahon, it was a reminder of the privileges that men like Shakespeare enjoyed during the Renaissance and beyond.
“There was something about this meme that felt very sexist,” actor Ryan Spahn recalls. “Like, look at this wise man, be like him and forget your feelings.”
