Lincoln Center Festival and Park Avenue Armory, in association with The Ohio State University will bring the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) to New York in July and August, 2011, for an unprecedented six-week residency. The joint announcement was made today by Nigel Redden, Director, Lincoln Center Festival; Rebecca Robertson, President and CEO, Park Avenue Armory; and Michael Boyd, Artistic Director of the RSC.
For the first time in its history of visiting the United States, the RSC will perform five of Shakespeare's plays in repertory, for 45 performances from July 6 through August 14, 2011, in a thrust-stage auditorium bringing actors and audiences closer together. The RSC's theater technicians are building a full-scale replica of the award-winning Courtyard Theatre where the Company currently performs. The Courtyard Theatre is acting as a prototype for the transformation of the historic Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, due to reopen in late 2010.
This will be the only opportunity for American audiences to see this ensemble, whose members will have worked together for three intense years by the time they arrive in New York. The ensemble has been assembled by Michael Boyd, who makes his debut in New York City as RSC Artistic Director. Five plays will be selected from the company's U.K. repertoire from 2009 and 2010: Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and The Winter's Tale. The residency will also be supported by an extensive education program, developed by the RSC, using Shakespeare to inspire the imagination and creativity of young people.
Nigel Redden said, "We are proud to be bringing to the festival one of the world's most important theater companies, so wonderfully revitalized in recent years by Michael Boyd. This is only possible because of the close collaboration with Park Avenue Armory and the participation of The Ohio State University. Lincoln Center Festival is happy to join with these exceptional organizations to bring Americans, and New Yorkers in particular, this unique opportunity to experience Shakespeare's plays performed by an ensemble of actors whom they will get to know over the course of watching five different productions."
"The Armory enables artists and performers to realize great works of art and epic productions that otherwise could not be seen in New York. We are thrilled to partner with Lincoln Center Festival and the Royal Shakespeare Company in bringing The Courtyard Theatre to the Armory, allowing the public to experience these incredible productions in an equally dramatic setting," stated Park Avenue Armory President & CEO Rebecca Robertson.
Says Michael Boyd: "Collaboration lies at the heart of everything we do at the Royal Shakespeare Company, which is why I am so pleased that we are able to work with such great partners to bring the culmination of three years' work in the U.K. to New York in 2011 as part of the Lincoln Center Festival. We have returned to our founding principles as an ensemble company, investing for the long term in our theater artists, plunging into the work and drawing in our audiences. Our thrust stage, wrapping the audience around the action, allows people to reach out to our actors and to each other in a space which is both intimate and powerful. I am delighted that we can recreate that intimacy right here in New York City in the extraordinary space of Park Avenue Armory. I would like to thank both U.S. and U.K. Equity for their support. And finally, I am also excited by our continuing partnership with The Ohio State University and their commitment to this residency, as well as the opportunity to work with U.S. teachers and teaching artists to ignite the imagination of young Americans through theater, which speaks to the human dilemmas of today."
"The Ohio State University community is truly honored to be associated with Lincoln Center Festival and Park Avenue Armory in the planning and presentation of the Royal Shakespeare Company in America in 2011," said E. Gordon Gee, President of The Ohio State University. "Ohio State is now the only American university preparing teachers in the RSC's internationally acclaimed method of engaging primary and secondary students with the works of William Shakespeare. Ohio State's participation will provide additional opportunities for our students, faculty and alumni to connect with the RSC. It will also advance the strength and excellence of our institution. We are grateful to Les and Abigail Wexner for their innovative philanthropy, which made possible our participation in this important collaboration."
