Seeds of Time Festival.  In collaboration with Play On Shakespeare, this groundbreaking three-week festival presents six teams of artists exploring and reenvisioning world classics with interactive public events, inviting audiences to witness the evolution of classic narratives and engage in conversations about their relevance today. Special attention will be given to teaching the insights and skills of dramaturgy.

WHERE’S MAMA?
Reclaiming the voices of Shakespeare’s missing mothers by Cathleen Riddley  

In Where’s Mama?, the silence of Shakespeare’s missing mothers becomes a powerful call to reimagine who gets to shape a legacy. This evocative solo piece centers Black women—absent from the Bard’s pages yet essential to the lives they birthed—by conjuring the unseen mothers of Helena, Miranda, Ophelia, and the daughters of King Lear. What might have happened if they had voices? If they had power? If they had presence? Through poetic monologues, critical fabulation, and ancestral storytelling, Where’s Mama? creates alternate worlds where these women are no longer hidden, forgotten, or erased. Instead, they guide, protect, provoke, and transform the stories we thought we knew. With tenderness and fury, this work examines absence as a form of violence—and presence as radical reclamation. For anyone ready to rethink Shakespeare through the eyes of the women he left behind, this is your invitation to witness what has always been waiting in the margins.  

About the Artist:  

Cathleen Riddley (she/her) is a Black woman, a deeply honest and loyal friend, and a member of the neurospicy clan. She prides herself in being a great colleague and collaborator, a dedicated mom, a captivating storyteller, a giver of the best hugs when someone wants one, and possessor of an open and welcoming heart for difference, diversity, creativity, and play.  She’s an activist, a “good trouble” maker, a certified ASL interpreter, and earned an MA in Sociology from UPenn. As an actor she is a multiple award-winner in the San Francisco Bay Area (and beyond) who has performed at ACT, Aurora, SF Playhouse, and Cal Shakes, to name just a few.  She is an Artistic Associate at Marin Shakes, and a company member with Shotgun Players and PlayGround.  Cathleen is expanding her horizons by adding emerging director, dramaturg, playwright, and teaching artist to her skill set.  None of us are free until all of us are free.