It’s generally known that in the late 1500s and early 1600s when works of William Shakespeare were being first produced, boys or young men played all the female roles. Playwright Zoe Senese-Grossberg looked into why.
“In preliminary research,” she said, “I found out that it was more males between the ages of 12 and 22 – older than I expected. I thought there were so many interesting questions to explore, like what is it about gender and class positioning that would have made it permissible to make these boys play women? What is it about a culture that makes it unacceptable to see women on stage?”
Jaysten D. Merced Ares, left, and Phoenix Velona rehearse a scene from Loud Fridge Theatre Group’s “Boy My Greatness.” (Liliana Talwatte)
There were female actors in England in 1606, the year in which Senese-Grossberg’s play “Boy My Greatness” is set, and by all accounts women at the time performed in theatrical productions in continental Europe.
“The research I did said that it (males portraying female character) was unique to England in some ways,” she said. “It was culturally enforced more than it was legally enforced, seen as something that would have been sexually inappropriate.”
Under the direction of Lee Engelman, Loud Fridge Theatre Group is staging “Boy My Greatness,” which takes audiences behind the scenes of rehearsals at the Globe Theatre in London in the summer of 1606 for productions of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and “Antony and Cleopatra.”
“I knew from the jump,” Senese-Grossberg said, “that I didn’t want to include any characters that weren’t ‘boy characters.’ I wanted to depict as many elements of this experience as possible. Those different perspectives are contrasted through the narrative.”
The diverse Loud Fridge cast reflecting the diverse experiences of performing as women includes Jacob Lopez, Jaysten Merced, August Nickoli, Michael Rodriguez, Daniel Savala and Maybelle Shimizu.
“Boy My Greatness,” said director Engelman, “is about the experience of transformation and the experience of losing the part of you that centers your identity. I hope that audiences walk away with more of an understanding of the fact that queer people and trans people have always been here and always have been part of the theatrical experience.”
The majority of Senese-Grossberg’s script has the actors speaking in contemporary language, though there are performance sequences spoken in the iambic pentameter of Shakespeare.
“In a lot of scenes it’s almost like musical theater,” said Engelman, whose background is heavy in performing and directing Shakespearean works. “When a feeling gets too big you have to get into iambic pentameter, which I think is such a fun and wonderful conceit. Iambic pentameter is the beat of a human heart.”
To Senese-Grossberg, “Boy My Greatness” speaks to the diversity and complexity of gender.
“There is so much pulled into this play from my own experience being a young woman who was an actor and the very strange position you’re asked to occupy,” she said. “The way you’re asked to explore adult sexuality when you’re way too young to know what that means. I’ve really found solidarity with these boys and their experiences.”
These dynamics are relevant today, Engelman believes.
“It feels,” she said, “like this play could easily be taking place in 1606 or speaking to the artistic experience today, in 2026. And so much of the piece is about feeling comfortable or uncomfortable in the body you’re growing into and the art that you’re able to create.”
“Boy My Greatness,” which was first produced by the Firebird Project two years ago in New York, is making its West Coast premiere. The Loud Fridge Theatre Group production is being staged at Moxie Theatre in Rolando. Tickets are free.
‘Boy My Greatness’
When: Previews July 2-3. Opens July 5 and runs through July 19. 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays
Where: Loud Fridge Theatre Group at Moxie Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd., Rolando
Admission: Free; donations of any amount encouraged
Online: loudfridge.com