Sofonisba

Dawn McAndrews Director	Ty Bolduc Asst. Stage Manager	German Cardenas-Alaminos Set Designer	Jennifer Fok Lighting Designer
Michelle Handley Costume Designer	Melissa Nathan Props Master	Kailey Pelletier Stage Manager	Rew Tippin Sound Designer

Cast

Time and Place: The Spanish Court of King Philip II, 1560-1571. And two ships, 20 years, and three lifetimes, apart.

Perhaps the most revolutionary (and the least well known) of the historical characters in our 2021 Revolutionary Redux Season is Sofonisba Anguissola. While there has never been a period in Western history in which women were completely absent in the visual arts, Sofonisba’s artistry and success blazed a trail (on her own terms) for greater numbers of women to pursue serious careers as artists. I have been aching to direct Callie Kimball’s Sofonisba since I first read it several years ago and am deeply grateful to her for the opportunity.

Kimball’s elegant and deeply human approach to Sofonisba’s story, full of both fact and some fiction, centers on the women: the child queen and the ambitious painter, educated by her father so she could make her way in the world independent of the encumbrances of a husband. Their brief friendship is the center of the story. Their deep love for each other changes them both and fuels the longing of the men that surround them.

Historian Whitney Chadwick wrote: “The first woman painter to achieve fame and respect did so within a set of constraints that removed her from competing for commissions with her male contemporaries and that effectively placed her within a critical category of her own.” The act of creation is a deeply person matter, both Sofonisba and Queen Isabel grapple with their purpose in life, to deliver a son and to matter to oneself.

Though resistant to the domesticity of taking a husband, Sofonisba did so twice. Once, at the urging of King Phillip. And the second time, to the ship’s captain who guided her journey to her third lifetime. Seven years after her death, on what would have been her one hundredth birthday, her husband placed an inscription on her tomb that reads, in part:

To Sofonisba, my wife … who is recorded among the illustrious women of the world, outstanding in portraying the images of man … Orazio Lomellino, in sorrow for the loss of his great love, in 1632, dedicated this little tribute to such a great woman.

Sofonisba herself once said, “Life is full of surprises, I try to capture these precious moments with wide eyes.” Thanks to the brilliance of Kimball’s words, I hope we have captured the quiet brilliance of Sofonisba and offered you a glimpse into her world through wide eyes.