SALMA QARNAIN LEADS CITY OF LADIES ALONGSIDE ANGELA PIERCE

CITY OF LADIES to Premiere at Theater for the New City's Dream Up Festival

Obie winner Angela Pierce leads a cast including Salma Qarnain, Garrett Lee Hendricks and Orson Cox.

By: Stephi Wild Aug. 18, 2026

At the center of the play is Christine de Pizan, the celebrated medieval writer who dared to challenge the way women had been depicted, dismissed and defined by men.

Paris, 1418. France is fractured by political rivalries and the aftermath of Agincourt. Christine has already made her name as a writer. Now, as she fights to complete the work that will become her legacy, The Book of the City of Ladies, she finds herself caught between the powerful Duke of Burgundy, the intellectual authority of the Sorbonne and a kingdom sliding once more toward war.

She was asked to review a book. Then came war. City of Ladies asks a strikingly contemporary question from across six centuries: Who gets to write history — and what happens when a woman insists on writing herself into it?