Michelangelo’s 27-year-old apprentice, Sofonisba Anguissola, boards a ship from Italy to become the first female court painter to King Philip II. Her 20 years at the Spanish Court are one long chess match, played for and against the expectations of king, bishop, fool, knight, and 14-year-old queen. The sacrifices she makes in service to her art reveal the dangerous waters of court politics for an unmarried, headstrong woman. A play about the hunger for creation–birth and art–and the very real cost of both.

This performance will take place outside in a tent at Cumston Hall. Tira Palmquist’s coming-of-age drama, imagines a world where environmental disaster, and a rapidly spreading plague, has reduced civilization and decimated hope. Mel finds safe haven on an isolated farm, tending to some of the last blooming apple orchards as primary pollinator. Into this fertile landscape enters Jonathan, an independent field researcher collecting samples of plants to start anew. Mel sees possibility and purpose in Jonathan, and in Mel, Jonathan discovers a secret that could save the world.