Mission Statement

Artistic Director Kris Lundberg founded the Shakespeare’s Sister Company in 2008 to give female artists a venue to keep the great works of our literary heroines alive. The SSC is dedicated to celebrating works by women. Our patron saint is one of the world’s greatest pioneers of the literary and intellectual community, Mrs. Virginia Woolf. In her essay “A Room of One’s Own”, she refers to herself as “Shakespeare’s Sister.” Mrs. Woolf represents the independent thinking and passion that our company exhibits.

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At the turn of the century, Mrs. Woolf was a significant figure in London literary society and a member of the Bloomsbury Group. Her most famous works include the novels Mrs Dalloway (1925), To the Lighthouse (1927), and Orlando (1928). She also wrote her book-length essay A Room of One’s Own (1929) with its famous dictum, “a woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.”

It is in this essay in which Woolf argues that if William Shakespeare had a sister of equal genius, as a woman she would not have had the opportunity to make use of it. She examines women and their struggles as artists, their position in literary history and the need for independence.

The SSC’s integral mission is to celebrate women in their achievements and promote literacy, continuing the legacy of Virginia Woolf.