Among the goals of the project, according to a press statement, is to "increase understanding and connection to Shakespeare’s plays, as well as engage and inspire theatergoers, theater professionals, students, teachers and scholars."
“We began this project with a ‘What if?,’ said Lue Morgan Douthit, OSF’s director of literary development and dramaturgy, in a statement. “There are differences between the early modern English of Shakespeare and contemporary English. What if we looked at these plays at the language level through the lens of dramatists? What would we learn about how they work? Would that help us understand them in a different way? ‘Translate’ is an inadequate word because it implies a word-for-word substitution, which isn’t what we’re doing. I’m going for something much more subtle. But I like the rigor that ‘translate’ implies. What excites me the most about this is who will dig into these texts. We have paired 36 playwrights with dramaturgs, and we are asking them to go in and look at what the plays are made of. The writers get the great joy of tagging along with the world’s best poetic dramatist. It will be the geekiest exercise ever.”
The project has commissioned a playwright and dramaturg for each of the 39 plays attributed to Shakespeare.
In approaching the task OSF has established two basic rules: "First, do no harm. There is language that will not need translating and some that does. Each team is being asked to examine the play line-by-line and translate to contemporary modern English those lines that need translating. There is to be no cutting or editing of scenes and playwrights may not add their personal politics. Second, put the same kind of pressure on the language as Shakespeare put on his. This means the playwright must consider the meter, rhyme, rhythm, metaphor, rhetoric, character action and theme of the original. These translations are not adaptations. Setting, time period and references will remain unchanged."
OSF will continue its commitment to producing all of Shakespeare’s plays between 2015 and 2025, and all these productions will use the original texts. One or more of the Play on! translations may be produced at OSF along with the complete original canon. Each play will have a reading and workshop with a director and actors to provide further insight into the work before the final drafts are submitted. OSF will produce readings and workshops of these translations all over the country.
Kennenth Cavandar’s translation of Timon of Athens, a pilot for this project, was produced at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in 2014. Three translations are currently scheduled for production: Pericles at Orlando Shakespeare, Two Noble Kinsmen at University of Utah and The Tempest at Alabama Shakespeare Festival.
The complete list of plays, playwrights and dramaturgs follows:
PLAY | PLAYWRIGHT | DRAMATURG |
All’s Well That Ends Well | Virginia Grise | Ricardo Bracho |
Antony and Cleopatra | Christopher Chen | Desdemona Chiang |
As You Like It | David Ivers | Lezlie C. Cross |
The Comedy of Errors | Christina Anderson | Martine Kei Green-Rogers |
Coriolanus | Sean San Jose | Rob Melrose |
Cymbeline | Andrea Thome | John Dias |
Edward III | Octavio Solis | Kimberly Colburn |
Hamlet | Lisa Peterson | Luan Schooler |
Henry IV, Part One | Yvette Nolan | Waylon Lenk |
Henry IV, Part Two | Luis Alfaro | Tanya Palmer |
Henry V | Lloyd Suh | Andrea Hiebler |
Henry VI, Parts One, Two, Three | Douglas Langworthy | Mead Hunter |
Henry VIII | Allison Moore | Julie Felise Dubiner |
Julius Caesar | Shishir Kurup | Nancy Keystone |
King John | Brighde Mullins | Katie Peterson |
King Lear | Marcus Gardley | Nakissa Etemad |
Love’s Labor’s Lost | Josh Wilder | Jeanie O’Hare |
Macbeth | Migdalia Cruz | Ishia Bennison |
Measure for Measure | Aditi Brennan Kapil | Liz Engelman |
The Merchant of Venice | Elise Thoron | Julie Felise Dubiner |
The Merry Wives of Windsor | Dipika Guha | Christine Sumption |
A Midsummer Night’s Dream | Jeff Whitty | Heidi Schreck |
Much Ado About Nothing | Ranjit Bolt | Lydia G. Garcia |
Othello | Mfoniso Udofia | TBA |
Pericles | Ellen McLaughlin | Alan Armstrong |
Richard II | Naomi Iizuka | Joy Meads |
Richard III | Kwame Kwei-Armah | Gavin Witt |
Romeo and Juliet | Hansol Jung | Aaron Malkin |
The Taming of the Shrew | Amy Freed | Drew Lichtenburg |
The Tempest | Kenneth Cavander | Christian Parker |
Timon of Athens | Kenneth Cavander | Lue Morgan Douthit |
Titus Andronicus | Taylor Mac | Jocelyn Clarke |
Troilus and Cressida | Lillian Groag | James Magruder |
Twelfth Night | Alison Carey | Lezlie Cross |
The Two Gentlemen of Verona | Amelia Roper | Kate McConnell |
Two Noble Kinsmen | Tim Slover | Martine Kei Green-Rogers |
The Winter’s Tale | Tracy Young | Ben Pryor |