NY Shakespeare Exchange To Produce All-inclusive Shakespeare Festival This Spring

A new Shakespeare festival emphasizing inclusivity and diversity is being launched by New York Shakespeare Exchange (NYSX) this spring. Running from April 23 through May 19, the 1st annual Shakespeare for Everyone Festival will have as its centerpiece the world premieres of eight new short plays in heightened language by a group of authors who identify with social, ethnic or gender-based communities with limited exposure to Shakespeare's work.

A theatre company that re-imagines how Shakespeare can bridge cultural divides, start conversations, and impact our modern world, NYSX selected eight writers to be a part of its first Diversity Cohort. Drawn from as many artistic, social and demographic communities as possible, the Cohort writers were commissioned to write new plays, and asked to share their experiences creating their new works in a series of monthly collaborative workshops and public diversity events.

The Cohort members span many different identities, including writers who are either of color, queer-identified, or of different abilities. Three are men, four are women, and one playwright is non-binary trans-masculine. Ranging in age from 24 to 48, the Cohorts have varied immigration status, and varied national or regional backgrounds.

The Festival launches on Shakespeare's generally recognized birthday.

Monday April 23, 6:30pm to 10pm
Birthday Sonnet Salon
Mama's Bar, 34 Avenue B
The Festival kick-off party is a special edition of NYSX's popular community-building Sonnet Salon, at which 12 of the most "liked" Sonnet Project films in the NYSX archive will be screened, including films featuring the work of Joanna Gleason, Carrie Preston and Sydney Lucas. The first 154 films commissioned by NYSX were shot in New York by diverse filmmakers from around the country... the next round of films are currently being shot in cities around the world in a variety of languages. $50 donation includes 2 drinks and an NYSX t-shirt (brand new design)

Thursday April 26, 7pm to 9pm
A Freestyle Lab: Leading the Diversity Charge in the Arts
Location TBA
The Diversity Cohort writers will take part in a panel discussion joined by diversity experts in the arts, advocacy, and community development. This event will be part expert panel and part rousing town hall discussion. The dialogue will begin with what the theater community is doing to address issues of diversity and inclusion, and will expand into hearing calls to action about how underserved communities can self-mobilize, engage with others, and affect meaningulf social change.

Wednesday May 2 to Saturday May 5 at 7pm
Diversity Cohort Plays
The Maroney Theatre at St. Francis College, 180 Remsen Street, Brooklyn Heights
On four consecutive nights, all 8 15-minute plays will be performed. The authors are Katie Kay Chelena; Evan T. Cummings; Alisha Espinosa; Kevin R. Free; Dani Martineck; Nilan; Ankita Raturi, and Kelli Ruttle. The plays explore many topics including bullying and trauma; the semiotics of role-playing and code-switching; colonialism; bi-culturalism and the relativity of beauty. A post-show talk-back with the authors will take place every night. Tickets $20

Saturdays May 12 & 19
ShakesBEER!
Bars/Neighborhood TBA -- 3pm to 6pm
NYSX updates its winning Pub Crawl model in this special diversity-eccentric edition of "ShakesBEER," featuring classic scenes from the Canon that upend traditional assumptions, disrupt, question and realign our thinking. Tickets are $49, includes 4 drink tickets.

According to Ross Williams, NYSX's artistic director, "We are looking forward to staging a festival that will show diversity in full flower. Communities usually assemble around common interests and values, even backgrounds... when the guiding principle is diversity we are creating unity out of difference. Fans and students of Shakespeare that we are, we know that the bridge between classical stories and forms to contemporary issues is both sturdy and broad."

NYSX is responsible for the internationally recognized The Sonnet Project, in which diverse filmmakers have been commissioned to create short films based on Shakespeare's 154 sonnets. Visit www.SonnetProject.org

In addition to the Diversity Cohort and The Sonnet Project, NYSX has launched a new immersive theatre model, "Intersections," that tailors a mini Shakespeare festival for each community it visits. Designed to make Shakespeare accessible and relevant, and to integrate different factions of a community, "Intersections" has already visited Texas with a week-long festival of events, and has taken educational offerings to schools in Brooklyn, Manhattan, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. New festival residencies in different American cities are being planned for the spring of 2019 and beyond.

Williams adds: "For 500 years Shakespearean literature has helped us understand humanity and the world. Now more than ever we need a deeper and more compassionate and smarter conversation about who we are -- and that includes all of us!"

Shakespeare for Everyone takes place in various locations April 23 to May 19. Tickets to individual events are available.

Shakespeare for Everyone Full Festival Pass $100
Special Donor Pass $250-$500 (includes all events, priority access, and a special immersive donor event)

Visit www.ShakespeareExchange.org