Pigeon Creek Shakespeare to Present PLAYHOUSE CREATURES at Michigan Venues
Directed by Kristina McCloskey, the cast features Kathleen Bode, Kat Hermes, and Emma Oliver.
The West Michigan-based Pigeon Creek Shakespeare Company will present April De Angelis' Playhouse Creatures at three different Michigan venues from May 1-May 22, 2026. The production is directed by Kristina McCloskey, who is also the artistic director of the Muskegon Civic Theater.
Playhouse Creatures follows the backstage intrigues, rivalries, struggles, and triumphs of the first women professional actors in England in the 1660s. Based on the lives of several historical figures, this script is by turns funny and poignant as these trailblazing women navigate the theatrical world.
The play portrays a time period shortly after King Charles II of England decreed that female roles in plays should be played by women, rather than the all-male companies that existed in the 1500s and early 1600s. Because women had been barred from professional performance during Shakespeare's own lifetime, the women who appear as characters in Playhouse Creatures were among the first women to perform the female roles in Shakespeare's plays.
Pigeon Creek's cast features actors Kathleen Bode, Kat Hermes, Samantha N. Luken, Katherine Mayberry, and Emma Oliver. The production will perform at the Stage at the Corner in Muskegon May 1 and 2, the Sauk in Jonesville on May 16, and Dog Story Theater in Grand Rapids May 22-24. Tickets range from $15-25.
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