The Anastasia Trials in the Court of Women

<p><span style=color: rgba(26 25 25 1)>A play with intense audience participation! Engrossing controversial courtroom drama where the audience must serve as judge and jury deciding motions and verdict in a case against the five women who betrayed the Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov the last surviving daughter of the Tsar of Russia. Complex ethical questions on a set of folding chairs.</span></p><p><br></p><p><em style=color: rgba(26 25 25 1)>The Anastasia Trials</em><span style=color: rgba(26 25 25 1)> is a farcical but profoundly engaging excursion into the hidden world of ethics for women who are both survivors and perpetrators of abuse toward women. The format is a play-within-a-play where a radical feminist theatre company comes together in order to perform a courtroom drama. The play is shaped by the audience decisions to overrule or sustain the attorneys' motions and every night's audience sees a different play.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(26 25 25 1)>In presenting the play the Emma Goldman Theatre Brigade has instituted a new system to insure equal opportunity for the actors: a lottery. As the women assemble to draw their roles from the hat for the evening's performance sisterhood is put to the test. The performance itself is a conspiracy trial against five women accused of denying a woman her identity. The plaintiff is none other than Anastasia Romanov sole survivor of the massacre of the Russian imperial family in 1918.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span>���</span>Elegantly conceived...A feminist <em>Noises Off</em>. - <em>Washington City Press</em></p><p>Powerful. -<em>San Diego Lesbian Press</em></p><p>Farce social history debate play agitprop audience participation melodrama satire [that] makes the head reel! -<em>San Diego Union Tribune</em></p><p>Wild... It's lively and moves quickly... Very funny yet poignant. -<em>Washington Blade</em></p><p>Carolyn Gage's raucous multilayered script explores issues of empathy loyalty and betrayal among women... --The Washington Post.</p><p><br></p><p>Verdict: An unexpected delight... --Miami Herald FL.</p><p><br></p><p>... farcical humor imaginative plot twists and just pure theatrical fun... --South Florida Sun-Sentinel Ft. Lauderdale.</p><p><br></p><p>... fascinating and complex play...--Fresno Beehive.com</p><p><br></p><p>I am constantly amazed at Carolyn's ability to make complex social issues not only accessible but also irresistibly fascinating... the play... [The Anastasia Trials ] touched us made us laugh and gripped us in a white-knuckle intensity usually found only in Hitchcock films. --R.J. McComish Literary Manager of the Portland Stage Company Portland Maine.</p><p><br></p><p>... fabulously interesting brilliantly thought-provoking and exquisitely funny... masterpiece of feminist theater... --off our backs Washington DC.</p><p><br></p><p>Each performance could potentially have a different result and many students saw every performance just so they could see how the show ended.--At Oldfields Glencoe MD.</p>