Shield Maiden FAQ

Shield Maiden FAQ helps presenters and audience members understand what Shield Maiden is all about. Let us know if you have other questions!

This show looks fiercely feminist in content, are men welcome?

Yes! Men are definitely welcome. Many men have women in their lives that they admire and care deeply about. This play gives them a new way to appreciate the strengths and challenges of the women they know.

What does fiercely feminist in content actually mean?

To the me, the playwright, fiercely feminist means saying what needs to be said. Not tiptoeing around hard conversations about gender equity, women’s sexual freedoms, and women’s rage.

Women’s rage…what is that…like the “Karens” I see on TikTok?

Nope. Not like the Karen’s on TikTok. Rage and anger are normal human emotions but women typically aren’t allowed to express these emotions without being severely corrected. Most of the Karen’s we see on social media are privileged white women. It’s one thing to throw a tantrum because you don’t have enough foam on your latte. It’s an entirely different thing to fight for human rights and equality. For many women, LGBTQ+ and BIPOC folks, rage can be dangerous. In some cases, deadly. This play explores what deep, raw, female rage looks like and lets the audience experience that.

Um, how do I experience that rage as an audience member?

It can potentially trigger folks for whom expressing their rage was dangerous or punishable. The character in the play lives in a different time, 1000 years ago. Rage, men’s and women’s, was potentially a tool to help with survival. Women still don’t have equal wage parity, sexual abuse and murders of women is on the rise globally, women’s autonomy over their reproductive choices are getting rolled back, etc.

I thought the #MeToo movement would stop all that nonsense, but nope. So, I get up on stage and channel the rage that many folks (regardless of gender) feel about the erasure of human rights globally.

Okay, cool, what about the strong themes and language?

Yep. The play definitely has that. The character is sweary and comfortable with her sexuality. And she has no problems talking about her experiences as a victim of sexual assault. Remember, she is a battle tested warrior from 1000 years ago. The expectations around her language and sexuality may have been different.

Wait, how do you know what women warriors said and felt 1000 years ago?

That is a great question! And my answer is I don’t know, and neither do you! Theatre allows us to play with the “what ifs” and possibilities. the Vikings did not have a written language so we rely on artifacts to tell and shape their story. Here is a link to the origin story of Ingrid. They thought she was a male warrior for over 100 years. DNA testing proves she was female. I’m comfortable filling in blanks in history…or rather herstory!

Why should I stay for the talk back session after the show?

The talk back session is a great container for any of the feelings that may come up for you during the show. You get to ask me, the playwright/performer questions. The venue and I invite a local woman warrior (business leaders, politicians, academics, scientists, etc) up on stage with me post show. We talk about her relationship to themes from the play. You also have the chance to hear audience members ask questions or make statements that are meaningful to you too. It’s a very common and widely popular value added experience.

Thanks for taking the time to read the Shield Maiden FAQ! See you in the theatre. Skol!

Shield Maiden at WIN Awards Nanaimo

Shield Maiden at WIN Awards Nanaimo was a success! Ingrid came out in full force to address a 630 seat crowd at the Nanaimo Convention Centre on February 7th. The gala was a spectacular success and was captured on film by Rogers Television.

Event organizer Blaise Hunter asked playwright/performer Melanie Teichroeb to participate and reflect warrior spirit back to the city’s collection of women leaders. In character as Ingrid Larsdottir, a 10th century Viking warrior, Melanie rallied the troops in attendance. She stayed around afterwards for photo ops and heard women reflect back how inspired they were. The men that came up to Teichroeb expressed gratitude for the inspirational message that they saw impact their female partners.

No matter what venue, size of stage, make up of audience, the message of Melanie Teichroeb’s solo show, Shield Maiden, lands loudly and proudly. Women are fighters. Women must continue to fight for equity, visibility and for the rights of marginalized people. Also, Ingrid honoured where we all are on our estrogen journey. It was a powerful moment.

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Shield Maiden at WIN Awards Nanaimo

Shield Maiden at The Anvil in New Westminster

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Saturday, December 16th at 7:30pm at the beautiful Anvil Theatre in New Westminster, BC.

https://www.newwestrecord.ca/local-arts/its-been-performed-off-broadway-in-nyc-now-shield-maiden-is-coming-to-new-west-7946002

Presented by Anvil Theatre
Written and performed by Melanie Teichroeb

“Funny. Sexy. Fierce. Unapologetic!

Imagine a 10th century Viking TED Talk on what it means to be a Viking warrior woman. As Garrison Commander Ingrid Larsdottir comedically endeavors to engage new recruits, she inadvertently reveals her own tragic and violent personal history. Watching her struggle with her trauma is unsettling. Witnessing her tap into her inner strength is inspiring. Ingrid’s clarion call for equality and new recruits prevails! She empowers women to reclaim the warrior archetype in our modern world.

This modern feminist story uses a character from the past to expose the reality that not enough has changed in the treatment of women since the time of Vikings…one thousand years ago. The show challenges untruths about women and gendered expectations and is based on an historical character who history gaslit the hell out of.

This performance of Shield Maiden at the Anvil theatre in New Westminster will be followed by a post show discussion with Jessica Schneider (ED of Massey Theatre Society). So stick around and dig a little deeper into Shield Maiden’s themes and we take questions from the audience. Folks seem to appreciate having a little more time with Ingrid!

PORT THEATRE PRESENTS SHIELD MAIDEN

SHIELD MAIDEN, PORT THEATRE, NANAIIMO, British Columbia, FEMINIST THEATRE, MELANIE TEICHROEB, VIKING WARRIOR, WOMAN WARRIOR

PORT THEATRE PRESENTS SHIELD MAIDEN

Thu Mar 16th, 2023 @ 7:30 pm

SHIELD MAIDEN, PORT THEATRE, NANAIIMO, British Columbia, FEMINIST THEATRE, MELANIE TEICHROEB, VIKING WARRIOR, WOMAN WARRIOR

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March 16, 2023 @ 7:30pm

A Port Theatre Discovery Series Presentation ~ Shield Maiden

photo credit: Jeanette Martin

Gabriolan Melanie Teichroeb’s, Shield Maiden, has been staged in Austin, Texas and in the theatre district off-Broadway in New York City and is now Port Theatre presents Shield Maiden in its Discovery Series.

The production is a 10th century version of a Ted Talk on life as a Viking woman warrior. It’s funny, sexy, fierce and unapologetic. Written and performed by Teichroeb,

Shield Maiden shows the audience that they have more in common with medieval era warrior, Ingrid Larsdöttir, than they could imagine.

The solo show shines a light on contemporary issues like inequality and sexism using humour and vulnerability. “The #MeTooMovement sparked conversation and change around these issues,” Melanie explains. “People are still working tirelessly to challenge the status quo. The visual impact of a confident woman warrior on stage resonates with audiences. Ingrid is flawed, but very powerful and relatable.”

Despite the pandemic shutdown of live performances, Shield Maiden hit the stages across BC this summer stronger than ever. Melanie said, “This show is loads of fun to perform and to receive the positive feedback that the message is meaningful to women and men alike is such an honour.” 

“Shield Maiden by Melanie Teichroeb is a fierce and funny mash-up of Vikings and a Tony Robbins workshop, and was truly one of the highlights this year of our 26th annual fringe festival, FronteraFest. Not only is it a great script, but Melanie’s performance was just incredible. It was no surprise that it was the best-selling long fringe show of the festival this year. Can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.” – Ken Webster, Artistic Director, Hyde Park Theatre Austin, Texas

PORT THEATRE PRESENTS SHIELD MAIDEN

Adults $20 | Members $18 | Students $15 (with valid student ID)

TICKETS ON SALE  11am October 28th

Please note: This show is for mature audiences and contains language and subject matter that might be offensive to some.

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Deep thanks to the Port Theatre
for presenting Shield Maiden

  • The Port Theatre Society / The Port Theatre 
  • Discovery Series Sponsor ~ RBC Emerging Artists
    https://www.rbc.com/community-social-impact/emerging-artists.html 
Thanks to our  Sponsor
Thanks to our funders… investors in the Arts!

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Learn more about Shield Maiden here

Women and Men Are Feminist Warriors

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Women and men are feminist warriors. It is a strange time. The earth is in peril, democracy worldwide is threatened. Human rights are stripped away from us at every turn. In a race for global domination, personal rights and freedoms have become trading cards for those in power. Human rights have become currency bartered and traded by corporations and politicians. Those in power ask themselves “How can we further our own economic desires while still convincing people they matter?” All of us feel the impacts of these disturbing trends. And as a result, women and men must be allies rather than enemies.

Consequently activists, politicians, business owners, trend setters, entertainment industry players regularly make headlines by publicly denouncing antiquated and hurtful practices. Organizations make policy changes to cement equality and respect. Women and men are working together to make these critical and urgently needed changes.

Because feminism works to advance the status of women worldwide, it is easy to assume that feminists fight only for women.

I believe that women AND men can be feminist warriors.

Feminist warriors go to bat for all humans. Wikipedia offers this sentence in its definition of feminism –

“Although feminist advocacy is, and has been, mainly focused on women’s rights, some feminists, including bell hooks, argue for the inclusion of men’s liberation within its aims, because they believe that men are also harmed by traditional gender roles.”

My play, Shield Maiden, intentionally highlights relationships between men and women. Both positive and negative aspects of the male/female dynamic are brought forward. I address violence, abuse and discrimination directed towards women. So many women HAVE suffered for millennia at the hands of men and patriarchy. I do not know one single woman who has not suffered. The #MeToo movement sparked outrage and that outrage spurred on change. But I also address how men can and do support women.

It is not just men in power who have the power to make change. It can start with a man choosing to see a woman’s accomplishments. Witness her strengths, her enduring fortitude, her determination in the face of repeated defeat. For a woman to be seen rather than “mansplained, manhandled, mistreated or abused” can give a woman such dignity. With that dignity comes focus and success. And that success benefits us all. Begin by seeing. Then take bigger steps to help your sisters, mothers, wives, daughters, aunts, cousins, friends, sheroes. This is not impossible. So many men already are doing this. We simply need more men need to do this too.

Certainly, I believe we will continue to suffer if we do not stridently work together to end abuse of marginalized groups including women, children, people of colour and the economically forgotten. I know that this work is already being done in partnership. My hope is that we continue and don’t falter. It’s truly time to fight like our lives depend on it because maybe, for some of us, our lives do depend on this. The rallying cry is for everyone to take up arms and storm onto the battlefield in a united front against oppression of any kind.

Get your swords and shield ready…I’ll see you in Valhalla! Sköl!

Courage To Be Women Warriors

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Do you have the courage to be women warriors? Courage comes easily to some and harder to others. Your level of courage can also fluctuate depending on the time of your life. Are you pushing to finish university and be the first woman in your family to do so? Do you have young children that require your constant attention and energy? Have you found yourself, later in life, needing a new creative outlet but face doubt and scepticism from your family or community?

Each of these examples and more compose the fluid and complicated question of what it means to be a woman warrior. I believe we all have the capacity for courage. In my experience, courage comes from deep inner work and honesty. Courage comes from making mistakes and analyzing them until a new answer arises. Even more, courage arrives when we feel like we have nothing left to give yet you continue. It’s also deeply courageous to know when to stop, when to walk away from something that no longer serves you.

I love these quotes by women on women’s courage.

I wrote my play because I needed to see and feel what courage looks like in a woman. I needed to see what lies beneath the rage, the frustration, the fear, the hopelessness, the pain. Beneath every #MeToo confession was an ocean of courage. Voices came together to cry out “enough!” but words on pages or on computer screens don’t always carry the real power you sometimes need to see. I needed to see an embodiment of that collective courage. I needed to ride that wave of rage and shout “enough!” with my own, tired, tattered voice. I needed to see courage.

Shield Maiden play explores why you need courage to be women warriors.

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Shield Maiden Cultivate Festival Gabriola, BC

This fiery and provocative one woman show does not spell out the answers to you in a convenient point form. Your assumptions are challenged. You are asked to think about yourself and your own life. Where do you demonstrate courage? When were you without courage and where is courage required now? Who was there for YOU when you needed help finding your own source of courage? How can you be solid and offer that back now? How fearless can you be?

I’m writing from a raw place today. This is a vulnerable and worn out place. A midwinter place. My courage is still there just not big and showy. It’s quiet and dark and deep. I fight to get closer to the truth of who I am as a mother, partner, friend, artist, woman, human. I have people who support me with their own courage.. They are invaluable and fearless. They are warriors. No stranger to their own fears, struggles, questions. They stand quietly beside me, witnesses, as I emerge bloodied but victorious on the other side. They are truth and compassion and joy embodied for me to remember.

I know where we find the courage to be women warriors. We find it in each other.

Amazon Warrior Women

Adrienne Mayor’s book about Amazon warrior women is a real treat. My play Shield Maiden asks me to continually work to find the warrior spirit in myself. I was thrilled to find a book steeped in proof of the existence of women warriors in history. It is quite dismaying that the notion of a woman warrior is still so heavily disputed.

The Amazons Lives and Legends of Warrior Women across the Ancient World

Mayor uses historical Greek artifacts to build the case that women warriors were more than cartoon fictionalized characters. These women were real people, living and fighting, loving, bearing children.

This past week, Mayor was interviewed by NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro about a recent archaeological find of women warriors buried in Russia. Here is a link to the transcript. The gravesite includes the bodies of four women. Their ages range from 13 to 50.

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“Many people had thought, in the past, that perhaps women of childbearing age or mothers or older women would not be participating in warfare. But this shows that women of childbearing age and even up into their 50s were participating in battle when necessary.”

Shield Maiden is based on the Birka warrior confirmed by DNA testing carried out in 2017 to be a woman. However, this discovery led to quite a loud uproar to the notion of women warriors. The idea of Amazons was met with equally rabid protest. Amazons were relegated to the land of myth and cartoons. Mayor rigourously cites ancient proof that these women in fact existed.

Therefore, this recent Russian burial site which “shows that women of all ages were active warriors and participated in battle alongside the men and were buried with the same honors as the men.” is a goldmine of proof and vindication to Mayor’s research.

All of this recent proof about ancient/ amazon women warriors makes my one woman show so much more exciting to me. My character is no longer just one woman from history but an army of women who were warriors rolled into one body.

Feminism, Activism, Vikings, #MeToo

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Shield Maiden Play came from feminism, activism, Vikings, and the #MeToo Movement. This one woman play explores the framework of today’s #MeToo Movement laid on top of the ancient woman warrior archetype.

The catalyst for Shield Maiden play is a 2018 article about DNA testing done on a corpse found in a Viking burial site in the 1800’s. The testing revealed that the “ideal warrior grave” was occupied by a female. Not a male. This challenges every discovery of every warrior burial site world wide. What happens if scientists do more DNA studies on remains assumed to be male?

What does it mean when feminism and activism enter into the scientific study of Vikings? “Hedenstierna-Jonson et al. just opened up a whole line of research questions that remind us how complex, rich, and fascinating human societies actually are when we study them for who they were and not to reflect who we think we are.Holly Norton, The Guardian

These researchers rolled feminism, activism, Vikings and #MeToo up in one tasty, spicy, mind-blowing, intellectual taco.

Women serve in active combat, fight for human rights and raise and protect their children. When strong women do step forward, there is STILL an immediate attempt to silence them, humiliate them, denigrate them and ultimately, erase them.

Recent examples of women warriors include Jody Wison-Raybould and Jane Philpot in Canada and “The Squad” in the US as well as the most amazing young female warrior, Greta Thunberg . These women are examples of warrior spirit. Furthermore, they are in actual battle because their lives are threatened for speaking out against status quo assumptions.

Maybe it’s difficult for you to imagine a Viking woman warrior existed. But feminism and activism will continue to challenge scientific assumptions. Why not take a page out of the Birka DNA study and assume that all people are capable of amazing things.

Warriors Aren’t Nice

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Warriors aren’t nice. In my solo show, Shield Maiden, our main character Ingrid states emphatically “Nice was never in my job description.” Ingrid is an elite warrior, a leader. However, she feels a behavioural expectation encroaching into her professional domain that doesn’t square up with the definition of who she is and what she’s expected to accomplish at her job.

So let’s talk about Megan Rapinoe, @mPinoe is an American professional soccer midfielder/winger who plays for and captains Reign FC in the National Women’s Soccer League. She is also a member of the United States women’s national soccer team which won the 2015 FIFA Women’s World Cup. The team also won gold at the 2012 London Olympics. She co-captains her national team with Carli Lloyd and Alex Morgan.

Rapinoe is an elite athlete trained to strategize and win. But not just win. She and her teammates have been trained to dominate. That’s what elite sports is about. Winning. All that money, time, energy, effort does not go into an individual and ultimately a team without expectation of winning. It’s not just a feel-good exercise at this level.

The terms the sporting world uses to describe sporting events are the same terms used to describe war. “Slayed”, “Murdered”, “Destroyed” “Devestated”. This is not accidental.

These athletes are warriors.

The analogy of battle on the playing field is a literal analogy. High level athletes are warriors. And warriors aren’t nice. Warriors are ruthless, focused, triumphant in their victories. Rapinoe is ruthless in her job. That is what makes her and her team successful.

When the #USWMNT obliterated (another war word) Team Thailand 13-0, they were called out for reveling in their victory. These women sent a scorchingly clear message that this US Women’s team showed up at the World Cup to dominate. Team USA stomped their opponent leaving absolutely no doubt what they planned to do to the next teams they played. Their strategy was brilliant and clear. This was NOT nice. And they took a lot of heat for it. The Washington Post even wrote and article with the headline ” US Women’s Team Soccer Team Stirs Up Debate About Celebrating Too Much”

The Washington Post article states that good sportsmanship should be the goal for all athletes male or female and that the US Women’s Team modelled bad behaviour for young athletes. This was my initial response when I first heard about the game and in fact, my husband and I even used it as a teaching moment for our daughter. I think we said something to the effect of “You can succeed, but do it with grace and humility.” I do believe this. Furthermore, I want my daughter growing up with this awareness.

But when I dig a lot deeper, I’m completely turned on by watching these women win without apology, without taking our feelings into consideration. I don’t actually want Rapinoe to be nice.

Women warriors get to be brutal and ruthless. It’s their job.

Who Megan Ranpinoe is on the field is what she’s getting paid for. She is hired to lead her team to victory. As long as she doesn’t break any rules (which she doesn’t) she gets to be ruthless and unapologetic. She gets to rub her opponents into the field and take a beautiful and perfect victory lap. I don’t know what kind of a person Rapinoe is in her personal life but in the public eye she’s an advocate for women and the LGBT community. She fights for pay equity for women athletes. Rapinoe uses her voice as a public figure to stand up to politics and policies that directly contradict what she’s fighting for. On the field, she’s ruthless.

When men are ruthless and brutal at their jobs they are classified as successful. Full stop. They are given a wide berth on their behaviour because they get the job done. They give their investors high returns. Their company sells the most widgets.

In this World Cup, I see many male sports commentators praise some of the women soccer players for “playing nice” after rough play (intended or otherwise). Specifically, women get praised for apologizing. I agree with the WaPo article in that just because men have behaved ruthlessly for centuries doesn’t mean it’s right. I’m not even getting into the historical proof of this ruthlessness.

I am teaching my daughter grace and humility. It’s a harder lesson for me personally to teach her that she doesn’t have to apologize for who she is. That lesson was burned into me and most women I know. I am so grateful we get to see women warriors out there in their full power without apology.

Thank you Megan Rapinoe and all the women before you using your breath and bodies to move us a little closer to the truth.

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