Posted: Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Selected as the first university participant in the nation, the University of Evansville Theatre hosted guest artists from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s internationally acclaimed Play on! Project, October 20–22. The Play On! Project is a provocative effort to translate William Shakespeare’s canon into contemporary English.

Taylor Bailey, a 2009 UE graduate, is assistant director of the project and attended departmental auditions on October 22 to cast Romeo and Juliet. Playwright Hansol Jung and dramaturg Aaron Malkin then worked with 21 student actors and dramaturgs on Saturday and presented a reading of the newest version of the play on Sunday.

After working with the UET students, the Play On! team then travelled to Minneapolis, Minnesota, where they are workshopping the script with actors from the Guthrie Theatre production of Romeo and Juliet, which happens to feature 2009 UE alumna Kelsey Didion as Mercutio.

Learn more about the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Play On! Project.