Cal Shakes Announces New Classics Initiative

California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes) today announced the launch of the New Classics Initiative (NCI), and the support of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with a $300,000 three-year grant. NCI has also garnered support from the Walter & Elise Haas Fund and the MCJ Amelior Foundation.

Exploring what it means to be a classical theater in the 21st century, the New Classics Initiative engages living writers in dialogue with our classical canon to see old stories through new eyes, challenging, expanding, and revitalizing our very notions of universal. NCI will support commissions, development, and world and regional premieres of 1-2 productions per year over the next three years.

NCI was piloted with 2017's runaway hit, Marcus Gardley's black odyssey. Like black odyssey, future NCI productions will either introduce non-Western classics to the stage or reimagine classic Western narratives through a diversity of form and content, cultural and gender perspectives, and adaptation and reinvention.

"During the development of our production of black odyssey, the artistic team continually found inspiration in the griot-a West African story-teller not dissimilar from the bardic traditions of Homer -distinguished not merely for preserving old stories, but for making them vividly, vibrantly a reflection of the contemporary moment," commented Ting. "It's in the same spirit that Shakespeare, the Bard of Avon, similarly retold old stories in a way that made them immediate to an Elizabethan audience. His plays tell us as much about his world in his time as they do about the stories themselves. Thanks to The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Walter & Elise Haas Fund, and the MCJ Amelier Foundation - we'll be able to support the chroniclers of our time as they endeavor to make sense of our world."

black odyssey's impact reverberated throughout Cal Shakes as an organization last season, allowing deep and meaningful collaborations with communities and classrooms through Cal Shakes' Artistic Learning and Engagement programs. Future NCI productions will expand upon this, intentionally connecting mainstage shows with ongoing work in classrooms and communities through story circles, classroom and community residencies, youth programming, and civic dialogues.

The 2018 Season includes two NCI productions: Quixote Nuevo, Octavio Solis' world premiere play inspired by Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote and set against the backdrop of the fictional modern-day border town of La Mancha, Texas, where Don Quixote loses himself in stories of chivalrous escapades, embarking on a quest of imagination, adventure, and Tejano music; and the West Coast premiere of Everybody, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' modern retelling of the medieval morality pageant The Somonyng of Everyman. When Everybody faces imminent death, which companion-Beauty, Friendship, Stuff or Love-will accompany them to their final destination? The core company of actors, whose roles are randomly determined each night by lottery, let fate decide the journey as they play out this new riff on the ancient morality tale with surprising grace, humor, heart and compassion. The 2018 season also includes a remount of black odyssey, which was hailed by critics and audiences alike, and smashed box office records.

Future NCI projects will be announced at a later date.

Tickets for all of the shows in Cal Shakes' 2018 Season (Quixote Nuevo, Everybody, Shakespeare's The War of the Roses, and black odyssey) are on sale now. Three-play subscriptions are available for as little as $99, with discounts available for seniors, youth, and full-time K-12 educators.

For information or to charge tickets by phone with VISA, MasterCard, Discover, or American Express, call the Cal Shakes Box Office at 510.548.9666. Additional information and online ticketing is available at www.calshakes.org.

California Shakespeare Theater (Cal Shakes), under the leadership of Artistic Director Eric Ting and Managing Director Susie Falk, is in its 44th season as a nationally-recognized leader in drawing on the power of authentic, inclusive storytelling to create more vibrant communities. Serving more than 40,000 people annually, Cal Shakes invites people from all walks of life to make deeply-felt connections with our shared humanity through its work onstage, in schools, and with people in non-traditional settings throughout the Bay Area who have little or no access to theater. For more information, visit www.calshakes.org.