Copies of each of the plays. While free copies may be available online, they were scanned from unreliable sources. The books are all available on Amazon for less than $10 each. Please contact the instructor of this is not within your price range - something can be worked out for you.

In addition to the Outschool classroom, this class uses:
Amazon List of Plays for "Women Wrote Too"
“Convent of Pleasure” free script
“The Tragedy of Mariam” free script
“The Roger” free script

This class is for teens only - some of the material can be considered PG-13 due to the sense of humor, acknowledgement of human's lustful nature, and ignorance of medicine and travel at the time these plays were written. There are overtones of gender roles and gender-specific superstitions and myths; we will address these in the class through a lens of inclusion and diversity. By identifying this and addressing this in an anti-misogynist manner, we can analyze the time period in which the play is set, the attitudes in theatre when the play was written, and ways to address this in our own analysis of the play. The instructor is well-versed in gender inclusive activism, is active in the Pledge to End Racism, and is a certified facilitator. She will open the floor to discussion.

Play Summaries:
"The Tragedy of Mariam" is the tale of the death of Mariam, the second wife of Herod the Great, the King of Palestine from 39-4 BC. As the play opens, friends and family discuss the news of Herod’s death.  Seizing the opportunity, each engages in love affairs and "bad behavior" knowing Herod would disapprove. Most importantly, Mariam admits she never loved Herod despite his passionate feelings for her.  To the surprise of the characters, Herod is well and alive and returns to reunite with his wife. Herod’s sister, Salome, plots to get rid of Mariam by spreading lies of her unfaithfulness, bringing about a chain of events that leads to Mariam's death. (This play was the basis for Shakespeare’s “Othello.”)

"The Convent of Pleasure" takes place after the death of Lord Fortunate. Lady Happy—being his only heir—inherits her father’s wealth and decides to forsake marriage, invite twenty ladies to her estate, and create a cloistered community called the Convent of Pleasure where the presence of men is banned. The gentlemen intent on wooing Lady Happy lament at the loss of Lord Fortunate’s wealth and a woman who is “extremely handsome, young, rich, and virtuous,” but the only virtue they see in Lady Happy is her wealth. They plot to infiltrate the convent, but achieve little success. Meanwhile, a princess has joined the convent. The princess and Lady Happy quickly fall in love, and the ladies of the convent perform a play about the perils of marriage. At the end of the play-within-a-play, it is revealed that the princess was, all along, a prince, and he and Lady Happy marry. (This play was inspired by works such as “Twelfth Night” by Shakespeare and “Volpone” by Ben Johnson)

Set during Carnival, "The Rover" tells of the adventures in Naples of Willmore and his banished friends, Blunt, Frederick, and Belvile. While the title refers to Willmore, who is The Rover, the plot is driven heavily by Hellena and Florinda, two sisters trapped in “engagements” against their will: Hellena to the convent and Florinda to Don Antonio. Respectively, they decide to pursue Willmore and Blunt, but things go awry when Willmore has an affair with Angellica, an aging mistress, and Blunt attempts to take Florinda against her will. However, through wit and masquerade, Florinda marries Belvile, and Hellena and Willmore commit to marry each other. (Thought by many scholars to be the foil of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”)