Shakespeare Adaptations Series is Centerpiece of 2007-2008 Season of Free Programs at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts

Playwrights John Guare and Arthur Laurents, Choreographers Lar Lubovitch and Peter Martins, and Designer Ming Cho Lee among Series Participants

For the 2007-2008 season, a series based on performing arts adaptations of Shakespeare's writings will be one of the major offerings of the public programs at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. The series is comprised of readings, seminars, discussions, performances, and screenings, and is inspired by the 50th anniversary of West Side Story, the landmark musical that is based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet (The movie version was filmed on the site of what became the Library for the Performing Arts in 1965.). The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center is located on the Lincoln Center campus at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza. All of the Library's public programs are free and are held in the Library's Bruno Walter Auditorium.

The series will open on Thursday, September 20 with an appearance by playwright Arthur Laurents, who wrote the book for West Side Story. On Saturday, October 6, Julie Kavanagh, author of the forthcoming book Nureyev: The Life, and critic Robert Greskovic will discuss the superstar ballet dancer and his performances and choreography in such Shakespearean ballets as Hamlet, The Tempest, and Romeo and Juliet. The program also features screenings of excerpts from the Library's collection of Rudolf Nureyev's videos. Peter Martins, Ballet Master in Chief of The New York City Ballet, will discuss his new ballet Romeo and Juliet on Thursday, December 6.  

Other programs in the series include an interview with composer David Amram and a performance of some of his song settings for Shakespeare plays and his incidental music for the New York Shakespeare Festival; a discussion with playwright John Guare, who wrote the book for the rock musical version of Two Gentlemen of Verona and The General of Hot Desire, a play inspired by Shakespeare's sonnets numbers 153 (Cupid laid by his brand, and fell asleep) and 154 (The little Love-god lying once asleep); a talk with choreographer Lar Lubovitch on his ballet Othello; and a panel discussion on designing for Shakespeare that includes designer Ming Cho Lee, whose award-winning designs are in the Library's collections. Members of the Metropolitan Opera Chorus will perform songs from Rodgers and Hart's The Boys from Syracuse (based on The Comedy of Errors), Cole Porter's Kiss Me Kate (based on The Taming of the Shrew), and West Side Story; there will be two art song recitals based on Shakespeare's writings; another program will feature a screening of choreographer Jerome Robbins's ballet West Side Story Suite; and there will be a reading of Cymbeline Refinished , George Bernard Shaw's re-write of Act 5 of Shakespeare's late play Cymbeline.

In addition to the Shakespeare adaptation programs, another program scheduled is a panel on Cambodian dance on Wednesday, October 10. The participants will be Sophiline Cheam Shapiro, Artistic Director of the Khmer Arts Academy and choreographer/director of Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute, and Toni Shapiro-Phim, PhD, a cultural anthropologist with a specialization in the performing arts of Southeast Asia and a leading scholar on Cambodian dance. Pamina Devi: A Cambodian Magic Flute, a new full-length work made in the classical Cambodian dance form (robam kbach boran) and inspired by the themes found in the Mozart opera The Magic Flute, will be the focal point of the talk that will introduce the kinetic vocabulary of this centuries-old art form, describe its rich history, and explore its current practice.

On Saturday, October 20, Theodore Mann, co-founder of the Circle in the Square Theatre, will discuss the famed theater on a program entitled Journeys in the Night: Creating a New American Theatre with Circle in the Square. The Circle in the Square Papers have been donated to the Library's Billy Rose Theatre Division.

The 2007-2008 edition of Treasures of the Music Division, an on-going series in which music manuscripts from the Library's Music Division are featured in performance, will include works by Ross Lee Finney, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and works from the collection of double bassist Frederick Zimmerman. Additional programs and details will be announced at a later date. For further information about programs, telephone 212-642-0142 or visit the Library's website www.nypl.org.

About The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts houses the world's most extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. Its divisions are the Circulating Collections, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division, Billy Rose Theatre Division, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. The materials in its collections are available free of charge, along with a wide range of special programs, including exhibitions, seminars, and performances. An essential resource for everyone with an interest in the arts - whether professional or amateur - the Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs, posters, and photographs.

About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers - the Humanities and Social Sciences Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library - and 87 Branch Libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items, including materials for the visually impaired. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The Library serves some 15 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 15 million users internationally, who access collections and services through the NYPL website, www.nypl.org.

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Contact: Rima Corben at 212.592.7710 or rcorben@nypl.org

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