Play On Shakespeare Announces 2021 Board Of Directors

Play On Shakespeare, the not-for-profit organization dedicated to exploring the world of Shakespeare through translation and adaptation, today announces their new board members as well as their January 2021 calendar of events. Play On Shakespeare's mission is to enhance the understanding of Shakespeare's plays in performance for theatre professionals, students, teachers, and audiences by engaging with contemporary translations and adaptations.

2021 Play On Shakespeare Board Members

Lue Morgan Douthit is the CEO/Creative Director of Play on Shakespeare. Prior to that, she spent 25 seasons at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival where she was director of new play development and dramaturgy. She also was the Production Dramaturg for more than 50 productions, including 15 world premieres. She has worked on over a dozen Shakespeare productions, including co-adapting a six-actor Macbeth and seven-actor Measure for Measure, which were both produced at OSF and elsewhere. She was the co-producer and founder of the BLACK SWAN Lab (2009) at OSF and subsequently produced the Lab until 2016. Lue is the recipient of the 1999 Literary Manager & Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA) Prize in Dramaturgy and The Elliott Hayes Award. She received her PhD at the University of Washington, her MFA from Trinity University, and her MA from University of Arizona.

As Chairman of the Hitz Foundation, Dave Hitz's focus areas include Mayan archeology, 3D scanning of ancient sites and museum collections, and global sustainability. As chairman of Deep Springs College, Dave helped guide the transition to coeducation after 100 years of all-male enrollment. He co-founded Play On Shakespeare, which is translating all of Shakespeare's plays into present-day, performable English. It has been called the single largest literary translation project since the King James Bible-and also "a waste of money and talent." In 1992, Dave co-founded NetApp, a Silicon Valley data management company. His roles included programmer, evangelist, architect, Executive VP of Engineering, cheerleader, strategist, and coach. Dave is an inventor on 29 patents. He wrote a book, How to Castrate a Bull: Unexpected Lessons on Risk, Growth, and Success in Business, about NetApp's journey from startup to Fortune 500. Dave is currently Founder Emeritus. Prior to NetApp, he worked for MIPS and Auspex. Dave dropped out of high school. Nevertheless, he attended George Washington University, Swarthmore College, and Deep Springs College. After eight years as an undergraduate, he received a BSE in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Princeton University. At Deep Springs College, Dave worked as a cowboy and learned to herd, brand, and castrate cattle.

Ken Hitz has served as the president of the Hitz Foundation since 2011. Prior to that Ken was an independent consultant specializing in system architecture and implementation working on projects in Asia, Africa, South America, and the US. Ken also worked as a senior manager for Price Waterhouse Management Consulting. In addition to serving as the chair of board of Play On Shakespeare, serves on the boards of the Royal Shakespeare Company America, Global Digital Heritage, and the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Fund. Additionally, Ken serves on advisory boards for the Union of Concerned Scientists, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Inian Islands Institute. Ken holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis.

Amrita Ramanan is thrilled to join the Play On Shakespeare board of directors! Amrita currently holds the role of Director of Literary Development and Dramaturgy at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. In her five seasons at OSF, Amrita has served as the Production Dramaturg for a variety of productions, including Cambodian Rock Band, Snow in Midsummer, Oklahoma!, As You Like It, Macbeth, Alice in Wonderland, Henry V, and Henry IV Parts 1 & 2. She is the lead curator and producer for OSF's BLACK SWAN Lab for New Play Development and a member of OSF's Senior Artistic Leadership team. Prior to her position at OSF, Amrita was the Literary Manager/Artistic Associate at Arena Stage, where she dramaturged Arena's productions of Mary T. & Lizzy K., My Fair Lady, The Music Man, Trouble in Mind, Ruined, and Duke Ellington's Sophisticated Ladies; produced the playwright residencies for Lisa Kron and Charles Randolph-Wright; and produced Arena Stage's New Play Reading Series. For three years, Amrita was the Associate Producer and Resident Dramaturg at Double Edge Theatre and supported the development of Double Edge's site-specific summer performances Sharazad, A Tale of Love and Magic and Once a Blue Moon. She is a board member for the Network of Ensemble Theaters and the Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas.

Sandra Weingart believes that storytelling and arts experiences are transformational gateways to a more humane and expansive society. Sandra currently consults in areas of business strategy, management and finance. Previously, she served as the CFO for Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Prior to OSF, she was CFO and COO of the Oakland Museum of California, where she led finance, facilities and operations, technology, marketing, and revenue generation businesses such as the OMCA store, café and event rentals. Sandra has also served as Managing Director for Aurora Theatre Company in Berkeley and Interim Managing Director for Marin Theatre Company. Sandra began her career in strategic management consulting and then in marketing management for various consumer and technology companies. She also was a COO and partner in a flowering plant wholesale business and, enjoyed occasional acting on the stage in various Bay Area venues, with productions ranging from Shakespeare to new works. Sandra holds both a MBA and a MA, Education from Stanford University and a BA, Economics from UC Berkeley. Sandra is enjoying exploring the natural wonders of Ashland and the Rogue Valley with her husband, daughter and dog.

Ayanna Thompson is a Regents Professor of English at Arizona State University, and the Director of the Arizona Center for Medieval & Renaissance Studies (ACMRS). She is the author of Blackface (Bloomsbury, 2021), Shakespeare in the Theatre: Peter Sellars (Arden Bloomsbury, 2018), Teaching Shakespeare with Purpose: A Student-Centred Approach, co-authored with Laura Turchi (Arden Bloomsbury, 2016), Passing Strange: Shakespeare, Race, and Contemporary America (Oxford University Press, 2011), and Performing Race and Torture on the Early Modern Stage (Routledge, 2008). She wrote the new introduction for the revised Arden3 Othello (Arden, 2016), and is the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Weyward Macbeth: Intersections of Race and Performance (Palgrave, 2010), and Colorblind Shakespeare: New Perspectives on Race and Performance (Routledge, 2006). She is currently collaborating with Curtis Perry on the Arden4 edition of Titus Andronicus. Thompson is a Shakespeare Scholar in Residence at The Public Theater in New York. She currently chairs the Council of Scholars at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn, NY, serves on the Board of Play On Shakespeare, and previously served on the Board for Woolly Mammoth Theater in Washington, DC. She was the 2018-19 President of the Shakespeare Association of America and was one of Phi Beta Kappa's Visiting Scholars for 2017-2018. From 2015-2017, Thompson served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Association of Marshall Scholars.

Watch 1623 Theatre Company and Play On Shakespeare's recent presentation - a rehearsed reading of Much Ado About Nothing [translation by Ranjit Bolt; Ben Spiller, Artistic Director] -- in full via Play On Shakespeare's YouTube page.

The Apothetae in Association with Play On ShakespeareTitus Andronicus, translation by Amy FreedGregg Mozgala, Founding Artistic Director January 15 @ 1:00PM ET / 10:00AM PT

Titus Andronicus, Roman general, returns from ten years of war with only four out of twenty-five sons left. He has captured Tamora, Queen of the Goths, her three sons, and Aaron the Moor. In obedience to Roman rituals, he sacrifices her eldest son to his own dead sons, which earns him Tamora's unending hatred and her promise of revenge.

This reading will feature a modern verse translation by Amy Freed commissioned by Oregon Shakespeare Festival as part of the Play On Shakespeare translation project presented by an integrated ensemble of d/Deaf, Disabled and non-disabled actors.
Register here [pay-what-you-can donations accepted]

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