The Second Coming of Joan of Arc
Paperback (Published by Samuel French)
eBook
CD of Gage's Performance and download of CD
French translation
Bulgarian translation
Chinese (Mandarin) translation
Portuguese translation (contact author)
Italian Translation
German Translation
Spanish Translation
Gage as Joan
- 2025 Espacio Teatro, Montevideo, Uruguay (Spanish translation)
- 2024 Edinburgh Fringe, Clover Studio at Grenside@Riddle's Court. Produced by Catinca Maria Nestor.
- 2024, Inner 6 Theatre Production at Etcetera Theatre, Camden, UK
- 2022, Excerpts performed by Back Porch Theater.
- 2022, Broadcast in three parts by Women's International News Gathering Service (WINGS).
- 2022, Hollywood Fringe, Hollywood, CA.
- 2020, Out of Pocket Productions (livestream), Rochester, NY.
- 2019, College of Southern Idaho, Stage Door Series, Twin Falls.
- 2016-2019, Hermit Crab Productions (Italian translation), Florence, Turin, Tuscany (Kilowatt Festival), Rome, Amelia, Milan (Festival Illecite Visioni). First-class production.
- 2018, Portland State University, Portland, OR.
- 2018, Brown University, "Queer Arts Festival."
- 2017, William Geery Theatre, Sacramento, CA.
- 2017, Excerpt and interview in Performing Gender and Violence in Contemporary Transnational Contexts, edited by Maria Anita Stefanelli, Colloquium.
- 2017, Brown University, Providence, RI.
- 2017, Saco River Theatre, Bar Mills, ME.
- 2016, Boston University.
- 2016, Published by Samuel French, Inc.
- 2016, Lesbian Artivisms in a Global Age Conference/ : L'artivisme lesbien à l'ère de la mondialisation, Univ. of Ottawa, Canada.
- 2016, Somerville Armory, Somerville, MA.
- 2016 Gather the Women, Northampton, MA
- 2015, Theatre Prometheus production in Capital Fringe, Washington, DC.
- 2014 Excerpt performed at World Theatre Day, Univ. Roma Tre.
- Winner, Lambda Literary Award in Drama, Lambda Literary Foundation (The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and Selected Plays).
- 2012, Mandarin production in Beijing.
- Translated into French, Bulgarian, Portuguese, Mandarin.
- Featured interview for “To the Best of Our Knowledge,” Public Radio International.
- 2009, Gozo Creative Club, Malta.
- 2007, Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival.
- 2007, Excerpts performed at the European Union Festival in Berlin, sponsored by the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts with the Embassy of Malta.
- 2006, Arizona State University, Tempe.
- First-class production in Sao Paolo and Rio de Janiero, Brazil, featuring Christiane Torloni (Portuguese language translation). Premiered at Teatro FAAP.
- Featured in Girlfriends Magazine, San Francisco.
- Featured performance at Lesbian/Gay Pre-Conference, Assoc. for Theatre in Higher Education, Wash., DC.
- Featured performance at U.K. Women’s Studies Conference, Belfast, N. Ireland.
- Invited to the World Summit for Economic Sustainability, Johannesburg.
- Oregon Playwrights Award, Oregon Institute of Literary Arts.
- Featured on the cover of national feminist magazine, On the Issues, New York.
- Reviewed in Lesbian Review of Books and Feminist Bookstore News.
- Performed in Atlanta, Minneapolis, Madison, San Francisco, Portland, Los Angeles, Toronto, Philadelphia Salt Lake City, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Northampton, Malta, Cork, Listowel, Rochester.
- West Coast Womyn’s Music Festival, East Coast Lesbian Festival, Binghampton, NY; National Lesbian Conference, Atlanta, GA; Women’s Ordination Conference, Washington, DC; National Women’s Studies Conference, Minneapolis, MN; National Women’s Music Festival, Muncie, IN; Women’s Week, Provincetown, MA; Moondance International Film Festival, Boulder, CO; Matilda Joslyn Gage Centenniel Conference, Kalamazoo, MI.
- Performed at University of Oregon at Eugene, University of Virginia, University of New England, University of Connecticut at Stamford and at Storrs, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Utah, University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Hollins University, Gettysburg College, Colorado College, Bloomsberg University, St. Cloud University, SUNY Cortland, Kalamazoo College, Kansas State University, Chatham College in Pittsburgh, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, PA, Univ. of Massachusetts at Amherst, Univ. of Maine, Farmington. Stetson Univ., Pacific University, University of Southern Mississippi.
- Recording nationally distributed by Goldenrod Music.
- Written up in Washington Blade (DC), Windy City Times (Chicago)and off our backs (Washington, DC).
Julia Reddy as Joan
"Carolyn Gage's work is not for the weak. It's bold, raw, and penetrating. It moves you, shakes you, holds you accountable, and unapologetically calls you out for your passivity..." --Catinca Maria Nistor
“… unparalleled, far superior to George Bernard Shaw’s... The Second Coming of Joan of Arc is high art and revolutionary theatre combined.”--Phyllis Chesler, author of Women and Madness and Mothers on Trial.
"... bursts with creative imagination at every turn. It is both rooted in its source material and relevant to the gender concerns of our day. It is a thinking, feeling theatre piece that strikes at the heart of what solo performance can accomplish when it is done with precision and spirit." -- DC Metro Theatre Arts, Washington, DC.
"Favorite of the Festival," "Favorite Solo Show," "Favorite Solo Performance." -- DC Metro Theatre Arts, Washington, DC.
“Joan of Arc has never been made more real to me, not in the movies, not on stage. This is the woman, not the myth… Brava!”--Z. Budapest, author of The Grandmother of Time.
“… passion, humor, rage, insight, regret… This play works on many levels - layers and layers and layers… a highly intelligent piece of work which always remains accessible… an emotional, moving, exciting experience...” --From the Flames, Nottingham, England.
“… passionate, witty. Let this Joan be one of your voices.” --Feminist Bookstore News, San Francisco.
“… gripping re-exploration of a legendary figure…” --Sing Out!
“… a tour de force performance by US writer/actor Carolyn Gage. Here the true story of Jeanne Romée, the young peasant girl who liberated France, is brought to us in a contemporary setting, to explore how 500 years later things have changed for women in society. It is a flawless performance, delivered with passion, indignation, some humour, connection, opinion and power...” --Gay Community News, Ireland.
“Carolyn Gage is a powerful writer who comprehends her character… exhilarating… held my attention fully.” --We the People, Santa Rosa, CA.
“… wickedly funny and devastatingly on target...” --Women’s Voices, Santa Rosa, CA.
“… a girl-power epic… Gage is at her best here, as almost every line is scorchingly insightful.” --The Spectrum, Buffalo, NY.
"Julia Reddy’s performance of Joan of Arc in Carolyn Gage’s play The Second Coming of Joan of Arc, at the University of Ottawa, was breath taking. Her resuscitation of a strong, sensitive, and inspiring character confronting the misogyny of a church, army, and government, was highly inspirational. It comes at a time when so many of us are reflecting on what is the role of a State and how to make this world a better one for everyone. Gage’s one woman play is a perfect opportunity for all to have a conversation about respect and dignity." -- Dominique Bourque, Associate Professor, Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, University of Ottawa.
Joan of Arc led an army to victory at seventeen. At eighteen, she arranged the coronation of a king. At nineteen, she went up against the entire Catholic church… and lost. Her trial lasted five months, and the testimony by witnesses was carefully transcribed by notaries. Twenty years after her death, a new trial was authorized, and again detailed records were kept. There was testimony by her childhood playmates, by her parents, by the women who slept with her, by the soldiers who served under her, by the priests who confessed her, by those who witnessed and administered her torture. She is the most thoroughly documented figure of the fifteenth century. So why do the myths about the simpleminded peasant girl, the pious virgin, still pervade the history books?
Joan was anorectic. She was a teenage runaway. She had an incestuous, alcoholic father. She loved women. She died for her right to wear men’s clothing. She was defiant, irreverent, more clever than her judges, unrepentant, and unfailingly true to her own visions.
In The Second Coming of Joan of Arc, Joan returns to share her story with contemporary women. She tells her experiences with the highest levels of church, state, and military, and unmasks the brutal misogyny behind male institutions.
One woman
70 minutes (90 w/intermission)
Single set
“… unparalleled, far superior to George Bernard Shaw’s... The Second Coming of Joan of Arc is high art and revolutionary theatre combined.”--Phyllis Chesler, author of Women and Madness and Mothers on Trial.
"... bursts with creative imagination at every turn. It is both rooted in its source material and relevant to the gender concerns of our day. It is a thinking, feeling theatre piece that strikes at the heart of what solo performance can accomplish when it is done with precision and spirit." -- DC Metro Theatre Arts, Washington, DC.
"Favorite of the Festival," "Favorite Solo Show," "Favorite Solo Performance." -- DC Metro Theatre Arts, Washington, DC.
“Joan of Arc has never been made more real to me, not in the movies, not on stage. This is the woman, not the myth… Brava!”--Z. Budapest, author of The Grandmother of Time.
“… passion, humor, rage, insight, regret… This play works on many levels - layers and layers and layers… a highly intelligent piece of work which always remains accessible… an emotional, moving, exciting experience...” --From the Flames, Nottingham, England.
“… passionate, witty. Let this Joan be one of your voices.” --Feminist Bookstore News, San Francisco.
“… gripping re-exploration of a legendary figure…” --Sing Out!
“… a tour de force performance by US writer/actor Carolyn Gage. Here the true story of Jeanne Romée, the young peasant girl who liberated France, is brought to us in a contemporary setting, to explore how 500 years later things have changed for women in society. It is a flawless performance, delivered with passion, indignation, some humour, connection, opinion and power...” --Gay Community News, Ireland.
“Carolyn Gage is a powerful writer who comprehends her character… exhilarating… held my attention fully.” --We the People, Santa Rosa, CA.
“… wickedly funny and devastatingly on target...” --Women’s Voices, Santa Rosa, CA.
“… a girl-power epic… Gage is at her best here, as almost every line is scorchingly insightful.” --The Spectrum, Buffalo, NY.
"Julia Reddy’s performance of Joan of Arc in Carolyn Gage’s play The Second Coming of Joan of Arc, at the University of Ottawa, was breath taking. Her resuscitation of a strong, sensitive, and inspiring character confronting the misogyny of a church, army, and government, was highly inspirational. It comes at a time when so many of us are reflecting on what is the role of a State and how to make this world a better one for everyone. Gage’s one woman play is a perfect opportunity for all to have a conversation about respect and dignity." -- Dominique Bourque, Associate Professor, Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, University of Ottawa.
Joan of Arc led an army to victory at seventeen. At eighteen, she arranged the coronation of a king. At nineteen, she went up against the entire Catholic church… and lost. Her trial lasted five months, and the testimony by witnesses was carefully transcribed by notaries. Twenty years after her death, a new trial was authorized, and again detailed records were kept. There was testimony by her childhood playmates, by her parents, by the women who slept with her, by the soldiers who served under her, by the priests who confessed her, by those who witnessed and administered her torture. She is the most thoroughly documented figure of the fifteenth century. So why do the myths about the simpleminded peasant girl, the pious virgin, still pervade the history books?
Joan was anorectic. She was a teenage runaway. She had an incestuous, alcoholic father. She loved women. She died for her right to wear men’s clothing. She was defiant, irreverent, more clever than her judges, unrepentant, and unfailingly true to her own visions.
In The Second Coming of Joan of Arc, Joan returns to share her story with contemporary women. She tells her experiences with the highest levels of church, state, and military, and unmasks the brutal misogyny behind male institutions.
One woman
70 minutes (90 w/intermission)
Single set
Online Reviews of The Second Coming of Joan of Arc
2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Second Coming of Joan of Arc’ by Michael Poandl, DC Metro Theater Arts, July 13, 2015
"(Review of CD) The Second Coming of Joan of Arc by playwright, actress Carolyn Gage" by N. E. Francis, Progressive Arts & Entertainment Examiner, July 1, 2011.
"Frieda's Feminist Book Blog," January 2, 2009.
"The Second Coming of Joan of Arc" by Carolyn Gage in On the Issues, Spring 1995.
"Hottest Lesbian Plays" by Rachel Lastra for Curve Magazine, 2009.
"Self-Published Book Review of the Week:The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and Selected Pays" on Self-Pubishing Advice Blog, January 17, 2008.
"To the Best of Our Knowledge: Making Saints" (Interview with Carolyn Gage about The Second Coming of Joan of Arc), Wisconsin Public Radio and Public Radio International, July 16, 2000.
"The Second Coming of Joan of Arc" reviewed by Carol Anne Douglas in Off Our Backs, Washington, DC, April 1995.
"UnaRocks Blogs The Second Coming of Joan of Arc" (Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival), May 20, 2007.
"Spotlight: The Second Coming of Joan of Arc" by Quinton Skinner in CityPages, Minneapolis, April 11, 2007.
2015 Capital Fringe Review: ‘The Second Coming of Joan of Arc’ by Michael Poandl, DC Metro Theater Arts, July 13, 2015
"(Review of CD) The Second Coming of Joan of Arc by playwright, actress Carolyn Gage" by N. E. Francis, Progressive Arts & Entertainment Examiner, July 1, 2011.
"Frieda's Feminist Book Blog," January 2, 2009.
"The Second Coming of Joan of Arc" by Carolyn Gage in On the Issues, Spring 1995.
"Hottest Lesbian Plays" by Rachel Lastra for Curve Magazine, 2009.
"Self-Published Book Review of the Week:The Second Coming of Joan of Arc and Selected Pays" on Self-Pubishing Advice Blog, January 17, 2008.
"To the Best of Our Knowledge: Making Saints" (Interview with Carolyn Gage about The Second Coming of Joan of Arc), Wisconsin Public Radio and Public Radio International, July 16, 2000.
"The Second Coming of Joan of Arc" reviewed by Carol Anne Douglas in Off Our Backs, Washington, DC, April 1995.
"UnaRocks Blogs The Second Coming of Joan of Arc" (Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival), May 20, 2007.
"Spotlight: The Second Coming of Joan of Arc" by Quinton Skinner in CityPages, Minneapolis, April 11, 2007.
