CYMBELINE, REFINISHED Reading Will Be Held at Red Bull Theater
Jay O. Sanders and Carson Elrod join the cast for the Revelation Readings Series at Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre
Red Bull Theater will conclude their spring Revelation Readings Series on Monday, May 18 at 7:30 PM with CYMBELINE, REFINISHED by William Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw and directed by Michael Sexton. The May reading will include Ra'Mya Latiah Aikens, Amir Arison, Tina Benko, Carson Elrod, Michael Karadsheh, Alfredo Narciso, Geoffrey Owens, Tom Pecinka, Vaughn Pole, Jay O. Sanders, and more. It will premiere LIVE and Live Streamed from the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Peter Norton Symphony Space (2537 Broadway).
A recording of CYMBELINE, REFINISHED will be available from Tuesday, May 19 at 7:30 PM ET thru Sunday, May 24 at 11:59 PM ET. Open captions will be available from Wednesday, May 20 at 7:30 PM ET thru Sunday, May 24 at 11:59 PM ET. This reading is made possible by the special support of the Michael Tuch Foundation.
“I’ve been waiting all year for this reading!” said Artistic Director Jesse Berger. “It’s not every day you get to hear a play by Shakespeare and Shaw at the same time. Cymbeline is one of Shakespeare’s most magnificently under-rated plays. If you don’t know it, the incredible story of Imogen and her journey will have you transfixed with its combination of romance and danger. Add Shaw’s 20th century feminism to Shakespeare’s 17th century humanism, and you have a mixture of combustible theatricality—performed by some of the greatest actors in NYC. Join us—online or in-person—and you will be glad you did!”
One great playwright rewrites another, as George Bernard Shaw imagines a refreshingly feminist ending for Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. In the same vein as Shaw’s final work Shakes versus Shav—a 10-minute Punch and Judy show in which the two bards debate who’s the better writer—Shaw tries to improve upon “one of Shakespeare’s finest later works” that nonetheless “goes to pieces” in Act V. The reading will feature Shakespeare’s original play, with Shaw’s reimagined final act, giving us a seamless experience of the two singular geniuses.
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