Marie Regina: The Life of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots
The Abbey Theater of Dublin, OH, as part of its ongoing Virtual Theatre Project, will present the World Premiere production of "Marie Regina: The Life of Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots," written and performed by Nikki Davis (Incoming M.A. '21).
The production will be streamed online on July 31st and August 1st at 8pm (EST) and August 2nd at 2pm (EST). Tickets are $5 per household. The stream will be of a multi-camera, edited recording of Nikki's live performances, a product of weeks of rewrites and rehearsals and fully designed by the Abbey Theater's talented crew.
Mary Stuart was born in 1542 and became the Queen of Scotland when she was six days old. Much to the dismay of the Scottish nobility, their new ruler was a woman. Mary's turbulent life included three very different marriages, a constant pursuit of the English throne, and many abusive, ambitious men who utilized her position of power for their own political gain. She was accused of adultery and murder, unproven accusations that led to her forced abdication of the Scottish throne and her 19-year imprisonment in England. When Mary's involvement in an assassination plot against Queen Elizabeth I of England was discovered, she was put to death by beheading in 1587. "Marie Regina" is a product of Nikki's research conducted in 2015 at the British Library, the National Library of Scotland, the National Archives of Scotland and at various castles and ruins where Mary lived or was imprisoned. The resulting script and workshop at the University of Richmond served as Nikki's Undergraduate Theatre Honors Thesis. Now, under the direction of Joe Bishara, Nikki has evolved the piece and is thrilled to bring it to an audience via stream. "This show is my pride and joy," says Nikki. "It is what propelled me into the world of Performance Studies and further theatre academia. I’ve always had a fascination with historical women who were executed, assassinated, or murdered because they had exercised personal agency in a time when women were not supposed to have such power, and were therefore deemed a threat. With this work, and hopefully future works, I seek to enlighten audiences about how far we have come and how far we still have to go to enable women to feel safe, respected, and powerful in our still very patriarchal, misogynistic societies."
Nikki Davis received her BA in Theatre Arts at the University of Richmond in 2016. She is an actor and historian currently based in Columbus, OH. Her prior acting credits include "The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui" (Arturo Ui), "Two Gentlemen of Verona" (Silvia),"The Lieutenant of Inishmore" (Mairead), and "A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Bottom). Nikki will be attending NYU Tisch School of the Arts to pursue an M.A. in Performance Studies where she plans to focus her combined passions on evolving what she calls, "historical female solo performance theory." Nikki hopes to make theatre that gives a voice to silenced women of the past in order to embolden women today to speak up and let their stories be heard.