Shakespeare's New Contemporaries
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Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries is a groundbreaking, industry-changing undertaking to develop a new canon of 38 plays that vibe off of and are inspired by Shakespeare’s work. It’s an opportunity for playwrights of every gender, race, and creed to partner with Shakespeare. It’s our chance to find the next generation of the world’s greatest playwrights.
Shakespeare's New Contemporaries
3y ago
One of the ways that Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries continues Shakespeare’s legacy is by asking playwrights to respond to an influential artist. Shakespeare continually repurposed existing tales to make engaging, immersive theater–and he was a literary magpie: he mined history, narrative poetry, popular music, fictional prose narratives, and drama to fuel his creative process.
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Shakespeare's New Contemporaries
3y ago
Theatrical technology has made great advancements over the last four centuries; today, Shakespeare’s plays are frequently performed with lighting, sound, and other technical effects. But at the American Shakespeare Center, universal lighting is de rigueur for classics and new plays alike. Inspired by the pre-electricity techniques of Renaissance theatre-makers who employed natural sunlight in...
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Shakespeare's New Contemporaries
3y ago
As a Shakespeare scholar and English nerd, I recently found myself wondering what “inspired by and in conversation with Shakespeare” might mean from the perspective of dialogue: as much as Renaissance theater was characterized by staging practices like universal lighting or repertory casting, it was also revolutionary for its daring approach to language. And while I am always eager to wax lyrical...
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Shakespeare's New Contemporaries
3y ago
You’ve already heard from our Literary Team about the titles we’re considering for Cycle 4 and what kinds of questions they provoke. But don’t take our word for why you should be excited to engage with these plays. We asked ASC staff, artists, and affiliated artists what intrigues, delights, confuses, and excites them about these plays. As You Like It I think As You Like It is Shakespeare’s most...
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Shakespeare's New Contemporaries
3y ago
When I speak to playwrights about Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries and encourage them to consider writing plays for the project, I frequently hear concerns about the requirement that the play must be able to be performed by an ensemble of 10-12 actors. Writing for large casts undoubtedly presents challenges, but it also creates opportunities: for artistic innovation, for complex dramaturgy...
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Shakespeare's New Contemporaries
3y ago
To me, one of the most striking features of Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries is the opportunity it offers writers’ imaginations to work upon a set of given materials: playwrights’ thoughts–varied and exciting and unpredictable–adorn our kings (Shakespeare, the Blackfriars Playhouse, and our company of actors). As the Cycle 4 application window nears, I can’t wait to encounter these thoughts on the...
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Shakespeare's New Contemporaries
3y ago
The application window for SNC Cycle 4 is just around the corner. Now that the details about the application process have been announced and the Shakespeare plays in consideration have been explored, we wanted to offer some additional food for thought as you contemplate writing a play to share with us. Consider the conversation. Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries is seeking plays that are “inspired...
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Shakespeare's New Contemporaries
4y ago
Last week, as I was re-reading the six plays under consideration for Cycle 4 of Shakespeare’s New Contemporaries (As You Like It, Romeo and Juliet, Henry VI (any/all parts), and Troilus and Cressida), I found myself lingering over the concluding lines of As You Like It. In an epilogue, the actor who plays the heroine Rosalind steps out of the role and solicits the audience’s approval...
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