“There are two things you must be able to do to play your character: you have to identify with your character by discovering aspects of yourself in your character; and you have to love your character. And if you can’t do those two things, then the simplest actions and objectives are just, well, fake, and no one will believe that you’re that person.”
Available in two versions:
- 11 actors–5m 5f, 1 m or f … or more, especially if the play is produced alongside of, and cross-cast with, All’s Well that Ends Well); or
- 5 actors: 3m, 2f
Available for development.
About the play:
Long-time company-member Helena has been cast in the role of Helena in a summer Shakespeare company’s production of All’s Well that Ends Well, and newcomer Brad has been cast as Bertram. But there’s a problem: Helena (the actor) considers playing the self-effacing Helena an obstacle to her professional advancement, and identifies more with Bertram, who has newly come into his own and wants to make an impression in the French court and on the battlefield, than she does with Helena; and Brad is secretly in love with his fellow-actor Helena, and identifies more with the character Helena, who pines away with an impossible love for Bertram, than he does with Bertram When they discover that both of them identify with the other actor’s part, they decide to switch roles. With the help of their fellow actors, they have only a single day to prepare scenes and speeches to perform for the director when he returns Tuesday morning, in order to persuade him to cross-gender cast the entire production.
Semi-finalist, “Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries” competition, 2020, American Shakespeare Center.
Download the latest version of the script at 
or contact the playwright directly.
direct all enquiries about the play’s availability for professional production, to the playwright.
Cary Mazer 