New to the Cleveland theater community, Shakespeare Exchange is seeking union and non-union talent for upcoming and ongoing events in the area. If you would like to be added to our casting files, please send: -- your headshot and resume -- a video audition link (via YouTube or Vimeo) including two monologues -- one should be Shakespeare or other classical playwright; contemporary is fine for the second, if you wish -- total time should not exceed three minutes -- send to cleveland@nysx.org "Shakespeare Exchange - Midwest" is a new regional offshoot of NY Shakespeare Exchange which has been in operation as an off-off-Broadway 501c3 since 2010. Our mission is to build communities and create conversations through classical work, especially Shakespeare. In addition to full productions, our work includes the wildly popular ShakesBEER Pub Crawls (a pop-up performance party bringing Shakespeare into comfortable, approachable spaces); NYSX Freestyle Labs (combining Shakespeare and contemporary issues - part performance, part panel discussion, and part group conversation); The Sonnet Project (an ongoing catalog of cinematic interpretations of Shakespeare's sonnets); The Voices Project (performance videos featuring the talent of communities that have been traditionally under-represented in classical work); and much more. Our goal is to begin producing in Cleveland in the late summer/early fall with a ShakesBEER Pub Crawl. For these events, actors must have classical acting skill, a heightened sense of improvisational freedom, and powerful vocal tools (think outdoor theater). Video example: https://vimeo.com/179766035 SHAKESPEARE EXCHANGE INCLUSION PLEDGE It is central to NY Shakespeare Exchange's core values that our network of artists and patrons grows to be as diverse and vibrant as the cities, country, and world in which we create. We believe that identity markers should never be a barrier to enjoyment of art, and therefore aim to push back against historical norms that have left some members of our community feeling less entitled to participate in Shakespeare's legacy. We recognize that as we carry that legacy into our contemporary world, it is made more potent by inclusivity. *WE PLEDGE:* -- To make room for perspectives that have traditionally been absent from the classical stage. -- To deploy a diversity of social, cultural, and artistic points-of-view into our programming and by doing so create more pertinent, powerful, and challenging art. -- To expand our audience base, particularly within communities that may feel alienated by prior encounters with Shakespeare. -- To proactively deepen the diversity of our casting pool, and to maintain a consistent pattern of inclusion in the ensembles of artists we hire. -- To strive for more inclusion at all levels of our company: from our production teams to our intern classes to our leadership team. NY Shakespeare Exchange expresses diversity broadly to include individuals representing varied national origins, ethnicities, religions, ages, socioeconomic strata, gender identities, and disabilities. *--* *Ross Williams *(he/him) *Artistic Director* www.nysx.org