MOSCOW — Shakespeare’s play “Measure for Measure” will be performed Friday-Sunday, April 28-May 7, at University of Idaho’s Hartung Theater at 625 Stadium Drive in Moscow.
The play explores the boundaries between authority and authoritarian, righteousness and corruption, justice and mercy, and cancel culture and forgiveness. It doesn’t provide easy answers, said Director Kate Powers, a U of I Master of Fine Arts alumna who teaches in the Department of Theatre Arts distance program.
“401 years before Tarana Burke coined the phrase ‘Me, too,’ as a way for women to share their stories of sexual assault, Shakespeare captured a violence that many of us still struggle with,” Powers said. “Isabel, a novice in a convent, asks, ‘To whom should I complain? Did I tell this, who would believe me?’ And then, sure enough, the disguised government official sets up a situation where Isabel will not be believed, will be portrayed as unhinged, where her powerful attacker is placed in a position to evaluate the veracity of her claims.”
Powers is a facilitator, teacher, and director with Rehabilitation Through the Arts (RTA) at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison. She founded The Redeeming Time Project to teach critical life skills to the incarcerated and the formerly incarcerated through the exploration of Shakespeare and theatre. Powers is a Fulbright scholar focusing on Shakespeare. She earned her Master of Arts with Distinction at the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.
Showtimes are:
- 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, April 28, 29; May 5, 6
- 2 p.m. Sundays, April 30, May 7
Tickets are free for U of I students and $5-20 for the public. Find tickets online or at the Hartung, one hour before showtime using credit card only. Refreshments will be for sale before the show in the lobby.