Packer is the founder of Shakespeare & Company. Her stage production of Women of Will played New York at the Gym at Judson in 2013. Directed by Eric Tucker, the two-actor piece also featured Nigel Gore.

The piece was developed during Packer's tenure at Shakespeare & Co in Lenox, MA, where Women of Will received its world premiere.

See the photo exclusive "A Two-Show Day With Women of Will Star Nigel Gore" here.

The book, which begins with the early comedies and histories before exploring Juliet and the plays that followed, is "a fierce, funny exploration — part master class, part brilliant analysis — of the women of Shakespeare's plays that illuminates for us his changing understanding of the feminine and reveals some of his deepest insights," press notes state. "Most importantly, Packer grapples not only with the language and the historical context of the plays but with them as they are actually performed — as male and female actors debate, fight, declare love, and otherwise physically relate to each other on the stage. Her insights into the performative aspects of Shakespeare's works are fresh, fascinating, and unexpected."

Packer has directed most of Shakespeare's plays, acted in seven and taught the entire canon at multiple colleges and universities, among them Harvard, MIT and Columbia. Packer was an associate artist with the Royal Shakespeare Company in England, and worked at the Royal Court and Aldwych theatres in London, Leicester, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and other regional theatres, as well as for BBC and ITV television. "Women of Will" is published by Alfred A. Knopf.