New York Shakespeare Exchange Announces Freestyle Lab

New York Shakespeare Exchange announces the next Freestyle Lab, SPEAK THE SPEECH: The Great Persuaders, on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 at 7pm at The Theater at the 53rd Street Library (18 West 53rd Street). This event is free.

Speak the Speech will explore a selection of speeches by Black activists, orators, and politicians across centuries of American history, including Maria Stewart, Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Stacey Abrams, and Alex King. These excerpts will alternate with some of Shakespeare's greatest speeches that use persuasive language in similar ways.

Co-conceived and curated by Brian Demar Jones and Cristina Lundy with additional curation by Martavius Parrish, the evening will be hosted by special guest moderator Leslie Short, CEO of the Cavu Group (thecavugroup.com), a consulting firm specializing in diversity and inclusion. Featured performers include Donovan Christie Jr., Jordan Cobb, Kristin Fulton, Martavius Parrish, Donnell E. Smith, and Kimberlee Walker.

Part lecture, part performance, and part town hall conversation, Freestyle Labs address the issues facing our world through a Shakespearean lens. All Freestyle Labs begin with an exhibition performance and conclude with a vibrant Town Hall conversation with the artists and audience.

Upcoming Freestyle Labs may include topics that address trans bodies on stage, explorations of gender in performance, and disability representation in Shakespeare. The next Freestyle Lab will be held at The Theater at the 53rd Street Library on April 16, 2019.

New York Shakespeare Exchange is internationally known for its The Sonnet Project (in which more than 1,500 volunteer filmmakers from around the world have joined the discussion by creating short films in New York locations based on all 154 Shakespeare sonnets). NYSX produces at least one mainstage production a year. In 2016, NYSX produced Hamlet10, in which 10 actors played the Danish Prince, and a stunningly relevant period-adaptation of Shakespeare's epic poem, "The Rape of Lucrece," which delved into sexual violence against women. This past season NYSX staged a critically acclaimed, smart phone-obsessed Much Ado About Nothing, which plugged into the zeitgeist of fake news and alternative facts. There most recent production, a new adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, was conceived and directed by Brendan Averett and ran in January/February 2019 at the Secret Theater in Long Island City, NY.

In the coming months, NY Shakespeare Exchange will offer a number of exciting community-based events. Their Freestyle Lab series-part performance, part lecture, and part town hall conversation-will be presented free of charge on April 16 and May 21 at the 53rd Street branch of the NY Public Library. And in May, NYSX will cross the river to present their first-ever NJ-based ShakesBEER. www.NYSX.org