The Shakespeare Society in Association with Red Bull Theater Presents MARLOWE VS. SHAKESPEARE: RIVALRY, IMITATION, AND INFLUENCE, 11/9

The Shakespeare Society (Michael Sexton, Artistic Director) will present Marlowe vs. Shakespeare: Rivalry, Imitation, and Influence, featuring John Douglas Thompson who plays the title role in the acclaimed Irish Rep revival of The Emperor Jones in a performance that was called "wondrous" by Ben Brantley in The New York Times; Matthew Rauch who currently stars in Still Life at MCC; and Columbia professor James Shapiro, author of the acclaimed book 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare, on Monday, November 9 at 7:00pm at the Kaye Playhouse at Hunter College, East 68 Street, between Park and Lexington Avenues.

A limited number of tickets, priced at $25, are available from the Kaye box office at (212) 772-4448.  For Shakespeare Society membership information or information about this event, call 212-967-6802 or go to www.shakespearesociety.org.  The evening is presented in association with Red Bull Theater.
 
An evening of performance and discussion, Marlowe vs. Shakespeare: Rivalry, Imitation, and Influence will be a thrilling look at two giants of the Elizabethan stage.  Born in the same year as Shakespeare, Christopher Marlowe died at the age of 29, having revolutionizEd English dramatic poetry with a series of dark, exuberant, and wildly theatrical plays.  The rivalry between these two great poets and Marlowe's influence on Shakespeare's work will be the subjects of this evening, which will feature readings from the works of both playwrights and commentary by one of the world's greatest Shakespeare scholars.
 
James Shapiro is currently Larry Miller Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, where he has taught since 1985.  He the author of Rival Playwrights: Marlowe, Jonson, Shakespeare (1991), Shakespeare and the Jews (1996), Oberammergau: The Troubling Story of the World's Most Famous Passion Play (2000), and 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare (2005), which was awarded the Samuel Johnson Prize for the best non-fiction book published in Britain in 2005.   His next book, out in April 2010, is Contested Will: Who Wrote Shakespeare?  He has been awarded fellowships from the NEH, the Guggenheim Foundation, and The New York Public Library Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers.  He works regularly with theaters and acting companies in the US and Britain and is a member of the Board of Governors at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
 
John Douglas Thompson is currently playing the title role in Emperor Jones at the Irish Repertory Theater.  Recent work includes Dreamer Examines His Pillow and Othello at Shakespeare and Company, Othello at Theater for a New Audience (OBIE, Lucille Lortel Award winner, Drama League nomination).  Mr. Thompson's Broadway credits include: Le Bret in Cyrano De Bergerac with Kevin Kline and Jennifer Garner and Julius Caesar with Denzel Washington.  International credits include Hotspur in Henry IV (Royal Shakespeare Company).  Other Off-Broadway credits are Women Beware Women (Red Bull Theatre), Enobarbus in Antony and Cleopatra, Orombo in Oroonoko (TFANA, AUDELCO nomination), Judge Brack in Hedda Gabler (NYTW), Edgar in King Lear (Classical Theatre of Harlem, AUDELCO nomination), Overtime (MTC), and The Changeling (The Salon).  Regionally he has appeared as Lucius Jenkins in Jesus Hopped The A Train (Wilma Theater, Barrymore Award Winner) and as Hotspur in Henry IV (Chicago Shakespeare Theatre), as well as in Bus Stop (Williamstown Theater), Othello, Preface To An Alien Garden, Measure for Measure (Trinity Rep), Mother Courage, Full Circle, Marat/Sade, The Winter's Tale, Antigone, Richard II (ART), and Spunk (Portland Stage).  Television includes Conviction, Law and Order, Law and Order: SVU, and All My Children.  He has appeared in the films Michael Clayton and Malcolm X.
 
Matthew Rauch's Broadway credits include Prelude to a Kiss (Roundabout) and his off-Broadway credits include Still Life (MCC), Edward the Second (Red Bull), 1001 (Page 73), Expats (New Group), The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (New Group), In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Keen Company), The Revenger's Tragedy (Red Bull), Hurlyburly (New Group), Book of Days (Signature Theatre)  Regional: Red Dog Howls at the El Portal in Los Angeles, The Front Page at Williamstown, Scramble! at Westport Playhouse, Modern Orthodox at Long Wharf, The Miser at Arena Stage, Macbeth and Henry V at the Shakespeare Theatre, Book of Days at Hartford Stage, Arcadia and Ghosts at Rep. Theatre of St. Louis, The Brothers Karamazov at Cincinnati Playhouse, Cakewalk, The L.A. Plays, and Black Snow at American Repertory Theatre, several plays at the O'Neill, and many others. Film: Stags, The Absence, No Reservations, Order of Redemption, Invitation to a Suicide, Frankenfish.  TV work includes "Without a Trace," "Criminal Intent," "Jonny Zero," "Navy NCIS," "Leap of Faith," "The DA," "Law and Order," "Metropolis" (pilot).  He is the author (with Brad Shelton) of two films (Between Two Waves and Fever) and three television shows (In Between Days, House of Cards, and Doctor Bob).  Mr. Rauch is a graduate of both the ART Institute at Harvard and Princeton University.  He will next appear in The Duchess of Malfi for Red Bull Theater in February.
 
The Shakespeare Society is a nonprofit organization dedicated to increasing the enjoyment, understanding, and appreciation of William Shakespeare's works through performance, commentary, and educational activities.  Shakespeare Society's Education Programs include the Hunts Point Children's Shakespeare Ensemble in the South Bronx performing The Tempest, after having spent the entire school year with our teaching artists studying the play.  Our Shakespeare In Schools program places trained teaching artists in more than 35 New York City schools and reaches more than 3,500 students every year. The newly established Shakespeare Works residency program provides vital support for Shakespearean directors and actors and demonstrates the Society's commitment to keeping Shakespeare an important part of the New York City cultural landscape.
 
Red Bull Theater is the Off Broadway theater dedicated to the presentation of vital and imaginative productions of heightened language plays and to the development of new plays written in a similar vein. With a special focus on the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries, Red Bull Theater aspires to challenge the intellect and engage the imagination of today's theatergoers through language-based, company created, resonantly provocative stagings of great classic stories.