New York Shakespeare Exchange Announces The Next Freestyle Lab: Our Own Voices, Our Own Tongues

New York Shakespeare Exchange announces the next Freestyle Lab: Our Own Voices, Our Own Tongues on Tuesday, November 19, 2019 at 7pm at the 53rd Street Library. This event is free, but reservations are suggested at www.nysx.org.

New York Shakespeare Exchange will present the final 2019 installment of their signature Freestyle Labs. Led by our curators and guest scholars, this lab will invite a discussion on Shakespeare and translation, asking us to consider how the work of a playwright who is known around the world might change as that work is "adopted" by other countries and cultures outside of his native England. What do we lose or gain when Shakespeare is translated out of its original text, and what are the different ways that translation can be its own creative act?

The November lab is co-curated by Jennifer Curfman and Cristina Lundy. Participating guest scholars include Cen Liu and Alison Walls, both PhD candidates at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Cen Liu is a Ph.D. student in Theatre and Performance at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Her research focuses on the theatre of Shakespeare and his contemporaries in England. She explores whether The Public Theatre has offered some imaginative and aestheticized forms of sacralization to compensate for the collective experience of faith once accessible through rituals and worships. Cen Liu has participated widely in university-based theatrical productions including Shakespeare's The Tempest. Before coming to GC, she received her B. A. and M. A. in English from Peking University, and an M. A. in English from the University of Rochester.

Alison Walls is a Ph.D. candidate in theatre at The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York. An actor and director from New Zealand, she holds an MA in French from Victoria University of Wellington and an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Her publications include a monograph on 19th century French literature with Peter Lang, articles in The New Zealand Journal of French Studies, Language and Literature, Studies in Musical Theatre, and The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, as well as a short chapter in The Routledge Companion to African American Theatre and Performances. Her current project examines the "surrogate mother" character in U.S. popular theatre and film 1939-1963.

New York Shakespeare Exchange bridges cultural divides, starts conversations, promotes education, and brings communities together through diverse, classically based programming that re-imagines how Shakespearean theater and poetry can impact our modern world. Brimming with an unwavering sense of adventure, their work honors the legacy of the Bard while intersecting his poetry with today's ever-changing social, political, and technological landscapes. From star-crossed lovers wooing across a crowded bar, to sonnets interpreted as independent film, to live productions that highlight Shakespeare's verse in a contemporary context, our projects challenge expectations and lead us forward to continued innovation.

NYSX 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 also produces mainstage productions and the crowd favorite ShakesBEER, NYC's Original Shakespearean Pub Crawl. This past season NYSX staged a critically acclaimed, new adaptation of Midsummer Night's Dream, conceived and directed by Brendan Averett which ran in January/February 2019 at the Secret Theater in Long Island City, NY. Freestyle Labs at the 53rd Street Library: Part lecture. Part performance. Part town hall conversation. Addressing the issues facing our world through a Shakespearean lens. Join them as they enter into conversation as only NY Shakespeare Exchange can do.