Red Bull Theater to Hold Benefit Reading of Margaret Cavendish's THE CONVENT OF PLEASURE

Red Bull Theater (Jesse Berger, Founder and Artistic Director | Jim Bredeson, Managing Director) today announced an online benefit reading of Margaret Cavendish's The Convent of Pleasure, directed by Kim Weild, presented in collaboration with R/18 Collective. This benefit reading is "Pay What You Can." All of Red Bull's current online-only programs are FREE. Please consider reserving your ticket with a tax-deductible donation. The Convent of Pleasure will stream live on Monday, March 14th at 7:30 PM EST. Cast to be announced shortly.

First published in 1668, The Convent of Pleasure, was written as a closet drama-a play intended to be read rather than performed. In its 354 year history, there have been very few public presentations and Red Bull is delighted to provide this opportunity to hear Margaret Cavendish's play read aloud with the support of R/18 Collective.

Prior to the reading there will be a companion program on Monday, March 7th at 7:30 PM EST: "The Closet Or The Stage? A Conversation about Margaret Cavendish's The Convent of Pleasure," a livestreamed Zoom Webinar. Four experts on early modern British literature, theater and culture - Misty G. Anderson, Liza Blake, Julie Crawford, and Kristina Straub - discuss Margaret Cavendish, the 17th-century polymath and aristocrat who wrote, among many other things, the closet drama, The Convent of Pleasure. For more information, go to RedBullTheater.com or click here to register online.

Following the Livestream reading, there will be a free online Bull Session on Thursday, March 17th at 7:30 PM EST: an interactive discussion of the play and its themes with director Kim Weild, noted scholars, and members of the company. The livestream will be on Youtube with chat.

When Lady Happy and her friends decide to ignore society's expectations and consciously choose to avoid men and marriage, they seclude themselves inside a free-thinking and joyous community, creating a radical feminist utopia: the Convent of Pleasure. Cavendish's 17th-century play imagines a space established by and for women to live for pleasure without men. But when a mysterious Princess comes to join the convent, a "princely brave woman truly, of a masculine presence," the paradise of the enclave shakes.

Red Bull Theater's online readings offer the unique opportunity to hear rarely-produced classic plays, and brand new plays in conversation with the classics, performed by the finest actors in New York. All of our current online offerings are FREE, but advance reservations are recommended. Tax-deductible donations are encouraged to support Red Bull and invest in the vitality of classical theater for a contemporary audience.

Red Bull Theater wishes to express its gratitude to the Performers' Unions: Actors' Equity Association, AMERICAN GUILD OF MUSICAL ARTISTS, AMERICAN GUILD OF VARIETY ARTISTS, and SAG-AFTRA through Theater Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists to appear on these programs.

Leadership support has been provided by ART LAB | Meg Fofonoff & The Center for the Arts in Society at Carnegie Mellon University

ABOUT THE R/18 COLLECTIVE

The R/18 Collective was formed in 2019 to promote professional productions of plays drawn from the Restoration and eighteenth-century repertoire and to support performance research related to those productions. Composed of scholars from the United Kingdom, the United States, and Canada, the Collective seeks both to cultivate strong, reciprocal relationships between scholars and theater artists and to increase awareness among theater audiences of the great riches embedded in dramatic works from this era. The R/18 Collective believe these plays provide urgently-needed insights into the formation of the modern world, including the historical development of our current ideas about race, gender, sexuality, nation, and capital. The R/18 COLLECTIVE is committed to providing the dramaturgical knowledge and services of some of the world's top scholars in the field to theater companies interested in producing these works as well as to securing collaborative, international grants to support those productions and the related performance research.

ABOUT RED BULL THEATER

Red Bull Theater, hailed as "the city's gutsiest classical theater" by Time Out New York, brings rarely seen classic plays to dynamic new life for contemporary audiences, uniting a respect for tradition with a modern sensibility. Named for the rowdy Jacobean playhouse that illegally performed plays in England during the years of Puritan rule, Red Bull Theater is New York City's home for dynamic performances of great plays that stand the test of time. With the Jacobean plays of Shakespeare and his contemporaries as its cornerstone, the company also produces new works that are in conversation with the classics.

A home for artists, scholars and students, Red Bull Theater delights and engages the intellect and imagination of audiences, and strives to make its work accessible, diverse, and welcoming to all. We value and practice inclusiveness, equity and diversity in all of our activities, and are committed to antiracist action. All of us at Red Bull Theater are committed to actively working to help realize a more perfect union-a racially and socially just America. Red Bull Theater believes in the power of great classic stories and plays of heightened language to deepen our understanding of the human condition, in the special ability of live theater to create unique, collective experiences, and the timeless capacity of classical theater to illuminate the events of our times. Variety agreed, hailing Red Bull's work as: "Proof that classical theater can still be surprising after hundreds of years."

Since its debut in 2003 with a production of Shakespeare's Pericles starring Daniel Breaker, Red Bull Theater has served adventurous theatergoers with Off-Broadway productions, Revelation Readings, and the annual Short New Play Festival. The company also offers outreach programs including Shakespeare in Schools bringing professional actors and teaching artists into public school classrooms; Bull Sessions, free post-play discussions with top scholars; and Classical Acting Intensives led by veteran theater professionals. During the pandemic, Red Bull responded swiftly to the shutdown, creating several ongoing programs to serve audiences and artists with our mission: RemarkaBULL Podversations, Online Readings, Seminars, and more.

"The classics-shaking Red Bull Theater," as Time Out NY has called it, has presented 20 Off-Broadway productions and nearly 200 Revelation Readings of rarely seen classics, serving a community of more than 5,000 artists and providing quality artistic programming to an audience of over 65,000. The company's unique programming has received ongoing critical acclaim, and has been recognized with Lortel, Drama Desk, Drama League, Callaway, Off Broadway Alliance, and OBIE nominations and Awards.

For more information about Margaret Cavendish, or any of Red Bull Theater's programs, visit www.redbulltheater.com.

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