Slaying Holofernes

by Emily McClain

FULL LENGTH DRAMA- A young female painter struggles to gain recognition for her work within the male-dominated art world of Renaissance Italy. Meanwhile, in the contemporary United States, a young career woman encounters her own version of the same challenges as she fights for recognition in the workplace. chiaroscuro or Slaying Holofernes blends and blurs the worlds of past/present, fact/fiction, and personal...

FULL LENGTH DRAMA- A young female painter struggles to gain recognition for her work within the male-dominated art world of Renaissance Italy. Meanwhile, in the contemporary United States, a young career woman encounters her own version of the same challenges as she fights for recognition in the workplace. chiaroscuro or Slaying Holofernes blends and blurs the worlds of past/present, fact/fiction, and personal/political as it explores two women’s parallel quests for justice in an imperfect world.

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Slaying Holofernes

Recommended by

  • Nora Louise Syran: Slaying Holofernes by Emily McClain
    “

    McClain deftly weaves together two stories, one set in the modern day and the other, the past and yet the parallels are disturbingly real. Progress is disturbingly absent. Both stories are equally compelling. Brava, playwright. Timely ...and timeless...? With work like McClain's being produced on stage to bring this subject matter to light, hopefully not.

    McClain deftly weaves together two stories, one set in the modern day and the other, the past and yet the parallels are disturbingly real. Progress is disturbingly absent. Both stories are equally compelling. Brava, playwright. Timely ...and timeless...? With work like McClain's being produced on stage to bring this subject matter to light, hopefully not.

    ”
  • Christopher Soucy: Slaying Holofernes by Emily McClain
    “

    Beautiful, well constructed, a tour de force of storytelling. Amazing roles, inspired parallels of injustice, and top notch theatricality. It is also infuriating. The kind of infuriating that stories like these deserve. They need to be told. We need to be outraged. Emily McClain has crafted an amazing art history lesson/dynamic tale of the continued mistreatment of women. I distinctly remember seeing the titular painting in Florence when I was a child and being amazed by its brutality. McClain has done Gentileschi and her art a great service in this tale.

    Beautiful, well constructed, a tour de force of storytelling. Amazing roles, inspired parallels of injustice, and top notch theatricality. It is also infuriating. The kind of infuriating that stories like these deserve. They need to be told. We need to be outraged. Emily McClain has crafted an amazing art history lesson/dynamic tale of the continued mistreatment of women. I distinctly remember seeing the titular painting in Florence when I was a child and being amazed by its brutality. McClain has done Gentileschi and her art a great service in this tale.

    ”
  • Chelsea Frandsen: Slaying Holofernes by Emily McClain
    “

    A beautifully interwoven story of two amazing women that delivers a message that resonates as loudly today as it did in the past. An unflinching look at sexual harassment and assault, this play that hits you right in the gut and doesn't let you go even after the lights fade.

    A beautifully interwoven story of two amazing women that delivers a message that resonates as loudly today as it did in the past. An unflinching look at sexual harassment and assault, this play that hits you right in the gut and doesn't let you go even after the lights fade.

    ”
View all 13 recommendations
*Artemisia Gentileschi/ Jane: Female. 18, artist living and working in Rome during the Renaissance. /Female. 20’s. Bartender at a neighborhood bar in Atlanta in the 2010’s.

*Agostino Tassi: Male. 30’s. Painting apprentice to Orazio and Artemisia’s painting instructor.

Amanda Adams: Female. 20’s, IT specialist living and working in Atlanta in the 2010’s.

Anthony Shepherd/ *Marcantonio Coppino: Male. 30’s, software engineer living and working in Atlanta in the 2010’s/ Male. 30’s, pigment maker for the Academy of Art in Renaissance Rome.

*Orazio Gentileschi /Oscar Matthews: Male. 50’s, well-respected artist in the Academy of Art in Renaissance Rome and father of Artemisia/ Male. 50’s, executive at the software firm where Amanda and Anthony work.

*Tuzia Medaglia/Tonya Fletcher: Female. 40’s, housekeeper in the Gentileschi home/ Female. 40’s. HR rep at the last company where Amanda works.

*Giovanni Stiattesi/Greg Saunders: Male. 30’s, lawyer hired by Orazio. He is a family friend of the Gentileschi's./ Male. 30’s. HR rep for AmTech.

*Luca Penatelli/ Lucas Pennell: Male. 50’s, lawyer hired by Agostino./Male. 50’s. Corporate lawyer for AmTech.

Judge: Male. 60’s. Judge in the Papal courts of Renaissance Rome.

Notary: Male. 20’s. Works in the Papal courts of Renaissance Rome.

(Giovanni, Luca, Judge, and Notary also double as men at the bar in 1.8)

Development History

  • Workshop, Working Title Playwrights, 2019

Production History

  • Professional, Essential Theatre, 2019

Awards

  • New Playwright Award
    Essential Theatre
    Winner
    2019
  • Ethel Woolson Lab
    Working Title Playwrights
    Winner
    2019