Play On! Shakespeare
Resident Organization
Play On Shakespeare has created an entire library of new versions of the entire Shakespeare canon with some of the greatest living writers! But these are “pure” they are translated line for line. This new chapter for Play On will be about making new productions! The Magic Theatre are matching these translations with a new version embodying it entirely with a POC cast- filled with the folx typically outside of Shakespeare text and productions. This will feature POC, Women, and Queer folx throughout and rightfully centered, embodying the original story and context- no adaptation- just new!
Sean San José, The Magic Theatre’s Lead Director:This Play On! Residency will uniquely place Shakespeare and new play development in concert together. The new repertory model is the future of coupling new plays with new Shakespeare productions filled with representative artists of the Bay Area
Lue Douthit, President and Creative Director of Play On Shakespeare: “All plays are new plays to me. And should feel that way to the artists who embody them and the audiences who experience them. Hard to do with Shakespeare often. The central question we are examining here is how can the skills and experience of artists dedicated to the development of new plays apply to how we think about and work on
Shakespeare? And conversely, what can the old teach the new?”
Play On Shakespeare is a non-profit company promoting and creating contemporary modern translations of Shakespeare’s plays. Since its inception in 2015, Play On Shakespeare has commissioned dozens of contemporary playwrights and translators to translate 39 Shakespeare plays into modern English, with a majority of the commissions being helmed by BIPOC and womxn playwrights. Far from a paraphrasing exercise, each playwright was tasked with matching Shakespeare’s linguistic rigor as they approached the text, preserving rhyme, rhythm, metaphor, meter, imagery, symbolism, rhetoric, and the structure that make Shakespeare’s plays engaging and accessible to today’s audience. Play On Shakespeare partners with artists and organizations across the globe to deliver and advocate for these translations through different channels, including theatrical productions, podcasts, publications, and film.
Play On Shakespeare, as the newest Resident Company in the New Age at the Magic Theatre, is proud to be embraced by the biggest community of Artists of Color in Residence in the Bay Area, with Home Resident Company Campo Santo, the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre, BACCE, Ellen Sebastian Chang/ Sunhui Chang, TigerBear Productions—and the recent inclusion of the legendary Saint John Coltrane Church, along with Resident Artists Star Finch, Juan Amador, Tongo Eisen-Martin, Joan Osato, Ashley Smiley, Brittany White, Tanya Orellana, Russell Champa, and expanding soon.