'Shape Shifting' Free Reading Series on Nov. 6 & 13

Ripe Time and New Dramatists have announced that they will present Shape Shifting: Contemporary Women Playwrights Re-imagine Homer, Shakespeare, and Chekhov, a series of readings and conversations with award-winning women playwrights whose work jumps off from classic texts, for three consecutive Tuesdays beginning October 30.  Admission is free.

Each evening features a reading from the writer's play, excerpts from the texts that inspired each play, and a spirited conversation about the politics and aesthetics of adaptation.  The discussions look at the broad spectrum of artists in the American theatre re-imagining classic texts through plays that offer a diverse array of approaches, aesthetically and politically.

New Dramatists teams with Ripe Time, an off-Broadway theater company critically acclaimed for its own adaptations, breathing theatrical life into classic novels and stories.  The company's next production is a re-imagining Sophocles's Antigone set for fall 2008.

The schedule is as follows:

Tuesday November 6 at 7 pm: Chiori Miyagawa in conversation with Morgan Jenness about Leaving Eden (inspired by Chekhov's stories and short plays)

Tuesday, November 13 at 7 pm: Ellen McLaughlin (Penelope) and Melissa James Gibson (Current Nobody) in conversation with Ripe Time Artistic Director Rachel Dickstein about their own plays inspired by Homer's The Odyssey.

All events are free, open to the public, and held at New Dramatists, 424 West 44th Street between 9th and 10th avenues. Reservations required. For reservations call (212) 757-6960. For more information call (718) 622-3650.  Program is subject to change.