Thrive, Or What You Will [an epic]
Recommended by
- Steven Christopher McKnight:17 Oct. 2023“ The play is somewhat of a Herculean task, as epics tend to be. It's a play that almost requires you to develop a relationship with it to fully understand and take in. As such a play that plays with time, space, gender, and personification, every audience member gets something different out of it. I saw this play a couple times at Binghamton University, which worked to its benefit. Having a whole department digest this play over the course of a semester made it such a remarkable shared experience. Recommended especially for universities. ”
- Pauline David-Sax:30 Jun. 2022“ As someone who read The Discovery of Jeanne Baret by Glynis Ridley, I was thrilled to see how L brought this source material to life. I loved the inventive use of the ensemble of Askers and the multiple Jean/nes. L covers a lot of historical ground while also creating a piece that speaks very much to contemporary audiences. It's a gripping exploration of identity and historiography and sexual politics. ”
- Jerry Polner:5 Feb. 2022“ L M Feldman's Thrive, or What You Will is indeed an epic, a worldly, sweeping story about the 18th century French herb woman Jeanne Baret, who pretends to be a man in order to board an exploratory ship bound for the "Great Southern Continent." This is a brilliantly told, steel-edged tale about what the worst of men can do and what the rest of us fail to do about it.
”
Development History
- ,Workshop,Page 732018
Production History
- ,University,Binghamton University2023
- ,University,George Mason University2023
- ,Professional,American Shakespeare Center2022
Awards
Finalist
Best LGBTQ Drama
Lambda Literary Awards
2022
Winner
Shakespeare's New Contemporaries
American Shakespeare Center
2020
Honorable Mention
The Kilroys List
2019
Finalist
O'Neill National Playwrights Conference
2018
Semi-Finalist
Bay Area Playwrights Festival
Semi-Finalist
The Ground Floor
Berkeley Rep