Alliance Announces Playwriting Initiative, Classic Remix Project

After hearing from educators and district leaders about their struggle to engage high school students in classic literature, the Alliance Theatre is pleased to announce a new playwriting initiative. The Classic Remix Project will commission leading American Playwrights to create new works that revitalize, rethink, and respond to classic literary works found in most school curriculums.

The goal for the program is to create a canon of new work that will engage and delight both high school students and adult audiences. Written with an immediacy that unleashes the questions and perspectives found in these classic stories, the Classic Remix plays will invite all audiences to engage with the material in ways that feel relevant to their contemporary world view. Classic Remix furthers the Alliance's commitment to engaging with high school students and creating work for our diverse community.

Playwrights and projects under commission currently and which will be programmed in upcoming seasons, include:

• ROMEO AND JULIET, by Hansol Jung and inspired by Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
• WALDEN by K.J. Sanchez and inspired by Walden and Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau.
• A TALE OF TWO CITIES (a modern look at income disparity) by Brendan Pelsue and inspired by A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

Preexisting plays that will be programmed at the Alliance for Classic Remix include:

• SEIZE THE KING, by Will Power and inspired by Shakespeare's Richard III
• John Proctor IS THE VILLAIN, by Kimberly Belflower and inspired by The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. John Proctor is the Villain will be presented as a rolling world premiere in 2020-21 season.

While forming the new Remix initiative, the Alliance encountered SEIZE THE KING, an exciting play by award-winning playwright and Spelman College Distinguished Professor in the Department of Theater & Performance Will Power. A timely and propulsive modern reinterpretation of Shakespeare's Richard III, SEIZE THE KING is the perfect play to launch this initiative.

SEIZE THE KING premiered at La Jolla Playhouse where the San Diego City Beat described it as "a sharp, lyrical script that blurs the line between the past and the present, while positing that ambition and depravity are not the province of merely one king, one country or one moment in time."

"I couldn't be more delighted that we get to kick off the Classic Remix Project with an Atlanta-based writer and an all-star Atlanta cast," said Christopher Moses, the Dan Reardon Director of Education and Associate Artistic Director of Alliance Theatre. "Will Power's breathtaking riff on the Shakespearean tragedy Richard III collides contemporary rhythms with classic structure to create something wholly

original. A classic, remixed. And yet, it's the same old story: man wants power, man gets power, man wants more power. As Will so ominously describes at the beginning of the play, King Richard is more alive today than ever before."

The cast of SEIZE THE KING features Wigasi Brant (Alliance Theatre: Ghost), Shakirah Demesier (Alliance Theatre: Nick's Flamingo Grill), Allan Edwards (Alliance: Hand to God), Tangela Large, and Travis Turner (Alliance Theatre: Goodnight, Tyler).

The SEIZE THE KING creative team is led by Director Michael John Garcés, and includes Scenic Designer Nephelie Andonyadis, Costume Designer Sarita Fellows, Lighting Designer Benjamin Rawson, and Sound Designer Robert Kaplowitz.

Tickets start at $25 and are available at The Woodruff Arts Center Box Office in person or by calling 404-733-5000. Tickets are also available online at www.alliancetheatre.org/sezie.

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