History of cross-dressing the Pelennor Fields outside the city Minas Tirith. In Tamora Pierce's Song of the Lioness series, the main character, Alanna, disguises herself as a boy for eight years in order to become a knight. William Shakespeare made substantial use of cross-dressing for female characters who took on masculine clothing to carry out actions difficult for women. In "The Merchant of Venice", Portia and her maid dress as men to plead in court on the merchant's behalf, and are quite successful in their ruse; in the same play, Shylock's daughter Jessica dresses as a man to elope with her Christian lover.
Shakespeare for My Father Shakespeare for My Father Shakespeare for My Father is a one-woman play written and performed by Lynn Redgrave. The play concerns Redgrave's relationship with her father, the imposing actor and family patriarch Sir Michael Redgrave. The play was produced and directed by Redgrave's then husband John Clark with lighting designed by Thomas Skelton. It was presented for a week at the Lobero Theatre in Santa Barbara before touring the United States for a year in a production sponsored by CAMI. Redgrave was a shy and somewhat sickly child who saw little of her busy father when growing up, and lived