"So You Think You Can Drag" Winner Juicy Liu hosts New York Shakespeare Exchange's raucous spin-off of its popular ShakesBEER Pub Crawl -- the re-dubbed ShakesQUEER Pub Crawl -- on Saturday June 4, from 4pm to 7pm.
Blasting out of the Shakespeare canon with classic scenes performed not just in drag but gender-flipped (or otherwise intriguingly queered up) will be
Matt Shingledecker ("Wicked" "Spring Awakening"),
Vince Gatton (Drama Desk nominee "Candy and Dorothy"),
Amy Jo Jackson,
Justin R. G. Holcomb, Quincy Ellis, Kim Krane,
Eleanor Handley,
Nathaniel P. Claridad, and
Elizabeth Neptune. The directors are
Ross Williams,
Carey Van Driest, Cristina Lundy and Kim Crane.
The pub-specific and highly interactive crawl makes its way to four Hell's Kitchen bars -- the starting point at Boxers HK, 742 Ninth Avenue, followed by The Gaf, Industry, and Therapy.
NYSX's special edition of their community-building, immersive pub crawl benefits NYSX and immigration rights organization Immigration Equality, to support their valuable legal aid services for LGBTQ immigrants, a uniquely cross-challenged community.
"ShakesQUEER" brings to new life classic scenes from "
Romeo & Juliet," "The Taming of the Shrew," "A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Henry IV, Part 1," and as a special bonus, a para-sexual "Hamlet."
NYSX is responsible for the recent well-received "Hamlet10" in which an ensemble of 10 actors representing a spectrum of ages, ethnicities and gender orientations all played the role of the Danish prince. NYSX has been staging its pub crawls in the city since 2013.
Known for popularizing Shakespeare for diverse, contemporary audiences in new and timely ways, Shakespeare Exchange has generated wide attention for The Sonnet Project, in which short films based on all 154 Shakespeare sonnets are being shot in every nook and cranny of New York City by diverse filmmakers. (The collection now numbers 110.) The launch of an international initiative will be announced for July.
For advance purchase of "ShakesQUEER" tickets, which start at $90, visit
www.shakespeareexchange.org or by phone at
800/838-3006. Tickets include five drink tickets redeemable for beer, wine and select cocktails. Check-in at Boxers HK, 742 Ninth Avenue (bet 50th & 51st Streets) at 3:30pm. The crawl begins at 4pm and lasts until 7pm.
