A drama written by a Playwright’s Lab at Hollins University student is getting its United Kingdom debut at an independent arts, community, and cultural festival.
A filmed performance of Kristin Lundberg’s Muse is featured as part of the 2021 Ludlow Fringe Festival and will be streamed from June 24 through July 18.
Based on a true story, Muse opens with a destitute Dante Gabriel Rossetti, a painter of sensuality (famed for founding the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which revolutionized fine art) remembering Elizabeth Siddal, his model, his muse, and his greatest passion. What follows is a kaleidoscope of memories, both passionate and painful, between lovers, and eventually artistic competitors.
Muse premiered as a reading in 2012 in New York City with the Woolf Series, went into production in 2014 in Theatre for the New City’s Dream-Up Festival, and enjoyed a live theatre run at Theatre for the New City in 2016. In 2019, Muse was performed during the Hollins University Summer New Play Festival at Roanoke’s Mill Mountain Theatre. “Muse is everything you could hope for in a gothic Victorian romance play,” noted Stage Buddy in its review, while Outerstage said, “The question is, ‘Can true love conquer all?’ The answer is Muse.”
Lundberg is a playwright, director, theatre teacher, and actress who is currently pursuing her M.F.A. in playwriting at Hollins with a concentration in new play directing. She is a member of the New Play Exchange, the Southeastern Theatre Conference (which named her the William E. Wilson Scholar for 2020-21), The Dramatists’ Guild, and League of Professional Theatre Women.
