During the Oct. 11 rehearsal in the McAfee Center for the upcoming November fall play, “Julius Caesar,” junior Ritika Kuppam, playing the role of a male conspirator, pretended to stab Julius Caesar, portrayed by senior Dermot Gleeson. Kuppam is one of the 27 female students in this year’s production who have been cast in a traditionally male role.

Although the play, as written, has only two female roles, casting female students in male roles was not difficult, drama teacher Sarah Thermond said.

The characters in “Julius Caesar” are already larger than life and already had a “mythic” status as historical figures when Shakespeare wrote them, she said. Because of this, Thermond prioritized the relationship dynamic between actors, rather than the characters’ genders.

Thermond said that after auditions on Sept. 11 and 12, it was easy to imagine the girls in roles like military generals or senators. Yet there was one spot where this became difficult.

“About the only place where considering women for traditionally male roles became a little tricky was to sell a petite lady being significantly older and more powerful [as a senator or military general] than a super tall dude [playing a soldier or servant],” Thermond said.

Gender has always been a topic of discussion when it comes to Shakespeare’s works. In 16th century England, it was unheard of for female actors to play a woman’s part — or any parts at all. Women were only allowed to attend the shows, according to Clare McManus’ British Library  article “Shakespeare and Gender: The ‘Woman’s Part.”

In the first staging of “Julius Caesar” in 1599, female roles were played by highly trained boys. In fact, “the practice of casting boy actors in female parts was meant that the playful exploration of gender was written into these plays from the start,” McManus writes. This practice was used to tease the audience with the knowledge that a young man was cross-dressing as a female, along with revealing the skill of the highly trained male actors.

A female actor first played a Shakespearean woman’s part in 1660, when Anne Marshall played the role of Desdemona in a production of Shakespeare’s “Othello” in London. Although men played women’s roles well into the 17th century, there were many more pioneering women who did not necessarily perform in playhouses, but made an impact in a variety of other ways.

For instance, cross-dresser Mary Frith, known by her alias Moll Cutpurse, was one of the first notorious figures of the London underworld. In 1611 at Fortune Playhouse, she watched a production of “Roaring Girl,” a play based on Frith’s own life. Yet the actor that was portraying Frith’s part was a male. When the production was over, Frith went on stage, played the lute, sang and taunted the crowd for believing that she was a man.

Since then, female actors have done their own takes on Shakespeare, with the creation of all-female productions of “Julius Caesar,” “The Tempest” and “Hamlet” by English film director Phyllida Lloyd.

While the breaking down of gender roles gives more opportunities and provides  diverse casting, the main roles in SHS’s production of “Julius Caesar” are still played by male students: Gleeson will play the role of Julius Caesar, senior Raghav Malaviya will play Mark Antony, the role of Brutus will be played by senior Shasta Ganti and senior Mateo Morganstern will play Cassius.

Students auditioned with prepared monologues from the characters Brutus, Cassius, Portia, Antony and Caesar. Thermond said that every student came into auditions ready and able to take on the difficult content of Shakespearean drama.

“I was just trying to keep straight what made each character unique so that I can match the best actor to each role,” Thermond said.

Kuppam said she finds the decision to cast females in traditionally male roles as a step in the right direction.

“I think it makes the play more inclusive and almost empowering because I play one of the conspirators who has been changed to a female, and I get to kill Caesar,” Kuppam said. “Like that’s a big deal. I actually really like having different genders being switched because it’s less like the males do everything; it accurately represents that females are equals.”