New York Shakespeare Exchange Announces The Next Freestyle Lab: Verses Vs. Verses

New York Shakespeare Exchange announces the next Freestyle Lab: Verses vs. Verses on November 27 at 7pm at The Theater at the 53rd Street Library (18 West 53rd Street). This event is free.

Verses vs. Verses is an exploration of how today's poetry affects our experience of Shakespeare. Six contemporary poets will share their work, flanked by six Shakespearean actors presenting famous speeches from the Bard. Part lecture. Part performance. 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 53rdStreet Library on February 19, 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.

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 - launched on September 25 at the 53rd Street branch of the NY Public Library with #MeToo Shakespeare, an exhibition of Intimacy Choreography led by Alicia Rodis, co-founder of Intimacy Directors International. And in January/February 2019, they will present a new adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, conceived and directed by Brendan Averett (TFANA, Stratford Festival, Rattlestick).