Compleat Female Stage Beauty

New Conservatory Theatre Center
25 Van Ness Avenue San Francisco

Back in 1661, when only men were allowed to act on the English stage, Edward Kynaston was the undisputed leading lady of the London theater. The famous diarist Samuel Pepys went so far as to proclaim him "the loveliest lady that ever I saw in my life." But when King Charles II permits actual females to take the stage, Kynaston's career founders as his former dresser Maria rockets to stardom. Inspired by the real-life Kynaston, playwright Jeffrey Hatcher has written Compleat Female Stage Beauty, a hilarious, poignant play about the craft of acting, the confusion of love and the shifting "realities" of identity. Adapted into an acclaimed film starring Claire Danes and Billy Crudup, Compleat Female Stage Beauty returns to the stage in a lively production from New Conservatory Theatre Center.