Q&A with Alexa Babakhanian

Q&A

Can you please tell us about the background behind Dark Lady? What inspired this concept? Can you share more about previous productions and the audience response?

I had just finished writing, composing, and presenting excerpts of my opera Lady Liberty and The Women of Don Quixote as part of my artist residency at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. I read an article in The Atlantic about Amelia Bassano as a compelling candidate for authorship of Shakespeare’s canon and was immediately fascinated and drawn into a journey of discovery, wonderment, and inspiration.

Dark Lady went through several iterations, including a meta-version! In collaboration with dramaturg Ann-Marie Dittman, it was presented as a reading at the Lyric Theatre at University of Illinois, produced by Julie Gunn, and before that with actors from the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. With supporting producers Meghan Carleton and Victoria Meakin, Dark Lady has also been presented as a showcase in New York several times.

The audience’s responses have been incredibly positive and enthusiastic. People are fascinated by the historical mystery aspect of the work as well as its modernity and social commentary on both Elizabethan and our current society. The audience may see what it was like to navigate society during Shakespeare’s time where many were considered others.

Dark Lady returns to the authorship question and considers the role of early modern writer Amelia Bassano. What have you discovered while researching her life and writing? How does Bassano speak to modern audiences?

I say with pride that I am a history and research geek. I find it extremely invigorating to discover things about Amelia Bassano, Shakespeare, and frankly every character depicted in Dark Lady. In my opinion, Bassano checks off more boxes than most of the candidates for authorship of the canon as to what the author would have experienced, as well as being familiar with and having access to books, knowledge of language, music, Judeo-Christian religion, and more.

I consider Amelia Bassano to be a feminist in her own era and any era, including present day. Not only was she the first woman poet published in England, she also started and ran a girls’ school later in life—a very forward-thinking, brave, and feminist move to invest in the future of girls and women’s possibilities and freedoms through education, which was scarcely permitted during her era.

What are your next dreams and plans for this play?

Together with Tony-award winning producer Jane Bergère along with producers Meghan Carleton and Victoria Meakin, we are working to present Dark Lady in New York Off-Broadway en route to Broadway soon after.

Is there anything else that you’d like readers and audience members to know about you and/or this play?

By experiencing Dark Lady, the audience will view Shakespeare and the canon through the lens of a female perspective. They will also have been exposed to Amelia Bassano’s writing, as well as my words and my music. I believe they will be richer for it! After experiencing Dark Lady, the audience can ponder and explore, research, discover, and perhaps rediscover the canon for themselves. Beyond that the sky is a limit!