Applications For Shakespeare Works Artist Residencies at The Public Now Available

The Public Theater (Artistic Director, Oskar Eustis; Executive Director, Patrick Willingham) and the Shakespeare Society (Artistic Director, Michael Sexton; Executive Director, Betsy Davidson Pickering) are now accepting applications for the 2013-2014Shakespeare Works Artist Residencies, part of the Shakespeare Society's Shakespeare Works program. The residencies will culminate in panel discussions about Shakespeare's plays, hosted by The Public Theater. The first two panel discussions will take place on Monday, September 30 and Monday, December 2 at 425 Lafayette Street.

"The Shakespeare Society has been a wonderful part of New York's cultural landscape for many years now, and The Public is delighted to be partnering with them in this venture," said Public Theater Artistic Director Oskar Eustis. "We share a belief that Shakespeare has much to offer American artists and audiences, and our deep friendship with Michael Sexton promises that this will be a fruitful collaboration."

The cornerstone of the Shakespeare Society's Shakespeare Works program is a series of weeklong artist residencies that provide actors and directors with the opportunity to work on a play by Shakespeare without the constraints and pressures of a full-scale production. The Shakespeare Society provides participating actors and directors with modest stipends, study materials, rehearsal space and access to academic experts, voice and text coaches and artistic advisors. Although some workshops serve as prologue to full productions, the program is designed to give participants the time and space to learn, experiment, and explore the plays with a freedom that producing theater companies can rarely provide. Applications for the Shakespeare Works Artist Residencies can be found at http://shakespearesociety.org/shakespeare-works.html.

"Shakespeare Works residencies encourage the artists to dig into the plays, searching for layers, for language and for what matters personally to them," said Shakespeare Society Artistic Director Michael Sexton. "They offer directors in particular a unique opportunity to do some of that deep digging before deciding on period, sets, costumes, casting and cutting. Partnering with The Public Theater - where Shakespeare is deep in the DNA - means the world to us and will help us serve a wide and diverse group of artists."

An artist-driven program, the Shakespeare Works Artist Residencies provide actors and directors with an opportunity to learn from each other while deepening their knowledge of Shakespeare, and fostering collaboration between artists and academics. They also provide critical support to partnering theaters by offering additional time for actors and directors to develop ideas and expand their knowledge of the plays prior to the design, rehearsal and production process. At the end of each residency, the participants gather for a panel discussion of the play and the week's work in front of a live audience.

Past participants include directors Martha Clarke, Rebecca Taichman, Davis McCallum, Erica Schmidt, Tom Ridgely, Jesse Berger and Sam Gold; actors Michael Cumpsty, Elizabeth Marvel, John Douglas Thomson, Seth Numrich, Bill Camp and Michael Stuhlbarg; academic advisers James Shapiro, Karen Newman, Richard McCoy and James Bednarz; voice and text advisers Deborah Hecht, ElizaBeth Smith and Kristin Linklater; and artistic advisers Doug Hughes, Michael Greif, Michael Kahn, Richard Easton, Barry Edelstein and Ron Daniels.

THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY's aim is to bring Shakespeare to all New Yorkers through a variety of cultural, educational and artist development programs, including: Major Evening Events, in which performers join scholars, directors and authors onstage for a lively blend of performance and commentary; Shakespeare Talks, interactive onstage conversations with artists, academics and educators; Shakespeare Works, NYC's only program designed exclusively to support the work of actors, directors and theater companies in their efforts to bring Shakespeare's plays to life; Shakespeare In Schools, serving New York City's students and teachers with active, performance-based approaches to the study of Shakespeare's plays; and The Hunts Point Children's Shakespeare Ensemble, a year-long collaboration with the Hunts Point Alliance for Children for 50 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders from the South Bronx, who study, learn and perform a fully produced Shakespeare play every school year.