Skylight Theatre Company To Premiere New Translation of THE WINTER'S TALE

Skylight Theatre Company has set dates for this accessible new modern English translation of Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale, conceived and directed by Tracy Young.

Opening Thursday April 24, 2025 and running through June 14, 2025, the story set in present day, tells of the wrath of Leontes, a tyrannical king who rages over a cowed population as he places himself and his delusions above the law of Apollo. Death and terror reign until at last a Princess raises their power to bring healing to the tortured land. The Winter's Tale is a magical tale of hope and forgiveness. As Paulina the witch cries as the dead return to life, “It is required you do awake your faith!” 

Skylight's production of The Winter's Tale is forging the first collaboration between Skylight Theatre Company and Play On Shakespeare, a non-profit organization that began as part of Oregon Shakespeare Festival's initiative to examine plays through the lens of the English we speak today, which was launched in 2015 under Bill Rausch.

"I was first drawn by Play On Shakespeare's commitment to commissioning dozens of contemporary playwrights and translations made by playwrights who embodied many different lived experiences and share a deep love and curiosity about language," says Armando Huipe, Skylight's Executive Director. "They were all tasked with matching Shakespeare's linguistic rigor as they approach the text and structure," Huipe adds, "in order to make Shakespeare's plays engaging and accessible to today's audiences."

“Right now, the picture is bleak, and it's growing bleaker every day. The Winter's Tale offers up a story where people find hope, forgiveness, and music in the face of tyranny. It reminds us how things that die in the winter are reborn in the spring,” said Gary Grossman, Skylight Producing Artistic Director.

Play On translations aim to follow the same rigor and pressure as the original, which means honoring the meter, rhyme, rhetoric, image, metaphor, character, action and theme. The work must be structured in iambic pentameter.

Within this context productions of the translations can still go through the same creative process that all classics go through: the director's vision and creative interpretation. The Oxford Dictionary definition of translate is "to carry on." The Play On Shakespeare series is intended to "carry on" the successful communication between actor and audience. 

Skylight embraces the tenets of Play On Shakespeare and is proud to introduce this important non-profit organization to LA audiences.

Joining Tracy Young, Skylight and Play On Shakespeare in their inaugural association are scenic designer Christopher Scott Murillo (Princess Grace Foundation Award); Brandon Baruch, lighting design; C. Yuri Son, Costume Design; Celina Lee Surniak, Intimacy & Fight Coordination; and Benjamin Pryor as Dramaturge.

Casting is by Victoria Hoffman and includes a diverse array of artists including Trans actors who help shape the world that Young has imagined. Joining the acting ensemble are Audrey Cirzan, Shaan Dasani, Israel Erron Ford, Victoria Hoffman, Spencer Jamison, Iman Nazemzadeh, Misha Osherovich, Quest Sapp, KT Vogt, and Daniel Deyoung.

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