The reading was part of OSF’s innovative “Play on!” initiative. “Play on!” brings together contemporary playwrights and theater scholars — dramaturgs, as they are called — to translate all 39 plays in Shakespeare’s canon into modern poetic language.
Author: Play On Shakespeare (page 20)
Facebook Video: OSF Cultural Connections conversation with Shishir Kurup and Olivia Espinosa
OSF is commissioning 36 playwrights and pairing them with dramaturgs to translate 39 plays attributed to Shakespeare into contemporary modern English between now and December 31, 2018.
Antony & Cleopatra
May 5 – 14, 2017 | Production | Kansas City Repertory Theatre | Kansas City, MO, USA
The Tempest
April 20 – May 14, 2017 | Alabama Shakespeare Festival | Production | Montgomery, AL, USA
YouTube: Shakespeare for a Modern Age: Translating the Bard’s words
In October 2016, actors and directors from the Colorado Shakespeare Festival read through drafts of two newly-translated plays, “Henry VI, Part 2” and “Henry VI, Part 3.” These modern-day translations of the Bard’s timeless words, part of OSF’s Play On! initiative, were done by playwright Douglas Langworthy.
Translating Shakespeare? 36 Playwrights Taketh the Big Risk
Since 1935, this mountain town has been home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, whose guiding spirit is present not just onstage, but also in the names of businesses like Oberon’s Tavern and the All’s Well Herb and Vitamin Shop.
Offscript: Translating Shakespeare With Lue Douthit
This week’s guest Lue Douthit, director of Play on! at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, discusses translating Shakespeare. Plus the editors talk about Humana.
Szekspir by Any Other Name Is Still the Bard of Avon
Four hundred years after the death of William Shakespeare, on April 23, 1616, he remains as celebrated as ever. Festivities to commemorate the playwright’s life and work are planned everywhere from Germany to Shanghai. The Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., has sent a flock of First Folios—the earliest collection of Shakespeare’s plays, now one of the most valuable books in history—to alight in every U.S. state.
Langworthy on translating Shakespeare: First do no harm
I’ll never forget the first German-language production of Shakespeare I saw – Troilus and Cressida at the Berliner Ensemble in then East Berlin. And while I can’t tell you that much about the design or the actors, I was struck by how clear the language was. You see, in Germany, Shakespeare gets translated once or twice each generation into contemporary language that sits comfortably in the listener’s ear.
Pericles
February 24 – March 26, 2016 | Orlando Shakes | Production | Orlando, FL, USA