Charlene V. Smith
Director, Actor, Scholar
Feminist Arts Leader
ABOUT ME!
I find meaning in keeping my hands and mind busy. The place I most want to be is in a rehearsal room collaborating with a group of actors. When that is not possible, I practice needlepoint, crochet, journaling, calligraphy, and any other hobby of the week. I love lighthouses and succulents and am obsessed with Margaret of Anjou.
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Previously, I was the co-founder and artistic director of Brave Spirits Theatre, which staged visceral and intimate productions of Shakespeare and his contemporaries with a focus on female artists and feminist perspectives. I am one of the few women in the world to have directed a full cycle of Shakespeare’s Henriad. During the pandemic, I have been directing both of Shakespeare’s history tetralogies as audio productions. The resulting twenty-four episodes will be released in 2024.
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I have an MLitt and MFA in Shakespeare and Performance from Mary Baldwin University. My scholarship includes essays in The Palgrave Handbook of Shakespeare’s Queens (winner of the Royal Studies Journal Book Prize for 2020) Arden Shakespeare’s The Changeling: The State of Play, and The Theatrical Legacy of Thomas Middleton, 1624–2024, as well as being the head editor of Rogue Shakespeare: Stagecraft and Scholarship in an Ensemble-Based MFA Company. Advancing justice and equity in the theatre industry is important to me; I was part of the working committee for Not In Our House DC and I served two years as co-chair of the IDEAA committee for the Shakespeare Theatre Association.
SHAKESPEARE'S HISTORIES IN AUDIO
Brave Spirits Theatre has completed the company’s final project: Shakespeare’s Histories in Audio, which I directed. Shakespeare’s epic eight-play saga captures the cyclical nature of violence and history, while showcasing poignant domestic stories of families and their divided loyalties.
Shakespeare’s Histories began on stage in the fall of 2019. Unfortunately, the coronavirus pandemic ended performances of The King’s Shadow early and resulted in the complete cancellation of The Queen’s Storm. In response, the company has spent the last three years reimagining their original theatrical work as audio dramas. We are thrilled to share these stories with our audiences in this new format. Though Brave Spirits Theatre has ceased operations, these audio productions will commemorate both the artistry of the Histories team as well as the company’s ten years of operation.
Shakespeare’s Histories in Audio provides 16 hours of listening divided into 24 episodes. The episodes will be available to stream for free at Brave Spirits Theatre’s YouTube channel. Episodes will be released Mondays and Thursdays at 7pm EDT/EST starting October 17th. Audiences can gather together in the chat for each live premiere, or stream the episodes later at their own convenience.​​
STREAMING SCHEDULE
October 17 - Richard the Second
October 21 - Henry the Fourth, Part 1
October 24 - Henry the Fourth, Part 2
October 28 - Henry the Fifth
November 4 - Henry the Sixth, Part 1
November 7 - Henry the Sixth, Part 2
November 11 - Henry the Sixth, Part 3
November 14 - Richard the Third
RECENT NEWS
This summer I trained with the Great Lakes Michael Chekhov Consortium and am appearing as Woman 1 in Women of Lockerbie with Seat of the Pants Productions, directed by Craig Joseph. My academic review of Trinity Rep's production of By the Queen was published by Shakespeare Bulletin last November. Claire Kimball and I collaborated on a process paper about Brave Spirits Theatre's 2015 production of The Bloody Banquet for The Theatrical Legacy of Thomas Middleton, 1624-2024, published in April.
