Carrie Preston Brings SONNET 27 to Life in The Sonnet Project's 100th Short Film

New York Shakespeare Exchange (Ross Williams, Artistic Director) is thrilled to announce that The Sonnet Project hits the 100th film milestone on April 8 with the release of Sonnet 27 (Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed...), starring Carrie Preston and directed by Michael Dunaway. The sonnet was filmed on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island.

Sonnet 27 is the centerpiece of a month-long celebration of Shakespeare's 452nd birthday (April 23), featuring a starry line-up of films from The Sonnet Project.

The full calendar of releases for the month of April is:

· April 1: Sonnet 83 (I never saw that you did painting need...), starring Max Casella, directed by Seth Wiley. Filmed in Cortlandt Alley in Manhattan's Chinatown.

· April 8: Sonnet 27 (Weary with toil, I haste me to my bed...), starring Carrie Preston and directed by Michael Dunaway. Filmed on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge between Brooklyn and Staten Island.

· April 15: Sonnet 30 (When to the sessions of sweet silent thought...) starring Alan Cox, directed by Brendan Averett. Filmed at The Sphere in Battery Park, Manhattan.

· April 23 (Shakespeare's 452nd birthday): Sonnet 23 (As an unperfect actor on the stage...) starring Joanna Gleason, and also featuring Chris Sarandon, directed by Marco Ricci. Filmed at The New Amsterdam Theatre in Manhattan's Theatre District.

· April 29: Sonnet 108 (What's in the brain that ink may character...), starring Billy Magnussen, and also featuring Mackenzie Mauzy, directed by Mark Karafin. Filmed at the John T. Brush Staircase in Washington Heights, Manhattan.

The Sonnet Project is part of New York Shakespeare Exchange's initiative to make Shakespeare accessible to everyone, everywhere. The Sonnet Project is their most ambitious undertaking, creating short films of all 154 of Shakespeare's love poems with 154 actors in 154 unique locations around the five boroughs, bringing together the classical poetry of the Bard with the urban poetry of New York City. The project launched on Shakespeare's 450th birthday in April of 2013 and is expected to reach completion on his 453rd birthday in 2016. By the end of this month, 103 of the 154 films will have been released. Each short film is released on the website www.SonnetProjectNYC.com and via a free Sonnet Project mobile app, available in the iTunes and Android stores. The sonnets are also available on the recently launched Globe Player, a new partnership between NYSX and Shakespeare's Globe.

New York Shakespeare Exchange offers innovative theatrical programming that explores what happens when contemporary culture is infused with Shakespearean poetry and themes in unexpected ways. Providing fresh points of entry to the work so that modern audiences will be exposed to the intrinsic power of Shakespeare, their goal is to encourage an enthusiastic appreciation of classical theater and to expand the reach of the art form within new and existing audiences.