PLAY ON SHAKESPEARE Announces Summer Season

Play On Shakespeare, the not-for-profit organization dedicated to exploring the world of Shakespeare in performance through translation and adaptation, today announces their Summer 2023 Season.

Building upon Play On Shakespeare's mission to enhance the understanding of Shakespeare's plays in performance, Play On Podcasts bring timeless tales directly to modern audiences. The series - presented by Next Chapter Podcasts in partnership with Play On Shakespeare - has released Macbeth, Pericles, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Coriolanus, King Lear, Twelfth Night, Henry V, Measure for Measure, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest over the last two years.

On June 12, Play On Podcasts will release episode 1 of Love's Labour's Lost. Set at Howard University in the 1930's, this production of Josh Wilder's translation features an all-Black cast directed by Nelson Eusebio with sound design and music composition by Lindsay Jones. In the Play On Podcast series Love's Labour's Lost, everyone is a traveler and music is universal! Featuring Tonya Pinkins, Russell G. Jones, Ashley Bryant, Tiffany Rachelle-Stewart, Walter Coppage and Matthew Elijah Webb.

Additional 2023 titles will be announced shortly.

Listen here.

Research in Action: Play On Shakespeare

Shakespeare's Globe
July 12
Location: Sam Wanamaker Playhouse [London, England]

Shakespeare's Globe holds an ongoing Research in Action series that gives audiences a chance to be a part of the Globe's exploration of early modern and contemporary performance culture. Research in Action: Play On Shakespeare will focus on Play On's translation project. Professional actors and writers will share scenes and speeches from Shakespeare's works in modern verse translation, and discussions-led by Play On Shakespeare's President and Co-Founder, Lue Douthit, and the Globe's Head of Research, Will Tosh-will be interspersed throughout the event followed by an interactive experience for the audience. What do we learn about Shakespeare's plays by putting the English of then and now in conversation?

More information here.

Romeo and Juliet

Theatre Space North East
Translated by: Hansol Jung
Directed by: Corinne Kilvington & Jamie Brown
July 13-16
Location: 1719 (former Holy Trinity Church) Church Street East [Sunderland, England]

With crime and youth violence on the rise, a young friar arrives in Verona, hoping to bring peace. Those hopes are shattered when a street brawl brings challenges right to his door. But when a young lad, Romeo, asks the friar for help to marry Juliet-two people on either side of a feud challenging the city-the friar sees a way to bring the conflict to a close. If only he could make it work. Merging contemporary Sunderland with an ecclesiastical Verona, this production combines a professional cast with community members to bring to light the challenges facing our community.

More information will be available shortly.

The Tempest

Theatre Space North East
Translated by: Kenneth Cavander
Directed by: Corinne Kilvington & Jamie Brown; Musical Director: Lawrence Neale
August 17-20
Location: Marine Walk [Sunderland, England]

Prospero and her daughter Miranda are castaway on the island of Sunderland, along with all the remnants of their city's long discarded shipping industry, banished from their home by a usurping sister. But when an opportunity for revenge presents itself, Prospero and her magical spirit Ariel bring those to blame to the island's shore, and the fun begins. Featuring a local community chorus alongside a professional cast, this production brings Sunderland's seafaring history to life against the setting of the north sea.

More information will be available shortly.

ACMRS Press [Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies] continues releasing Play On Shakespeare's translations in print. All 39 titles will be published over the next several years.

Play On Shakespeare is a non-profit company promoting and creating contemporary modern translations of Shakespeare's plays. Play On partners with artists and organizations across the globe to deliver these translations through theatrical productions, podcasts, and publications. Play On Shakespeare is made possible through generous support of the Hitz Foundation.

The Hitz Foundation has projects in science, the arts, and the environment throughout the world. In addition to Play On Shakespeare and Play On Podcasts, the foundation also supports several archaeological projects in northern Guatemala and funded the largest LiDAR mapping ever undertaken for archaeological research to support these projects (discovering 60,000 new Mayan structures). The foundation funds Global Digital Heritage which captures state-of-the-art 3D models of museum collections and heritage sites and shares them with the world at no cost. The foundation also supports several environmental projects including the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust, which protects ecosystems and biodiversity of East Africa through conservation efforts that directly benefit wildlife, wilderness and the local Maasai communities.