Indie Publisher enters market with launch of Shakespearean Adaptations for Schools

(Toronto, ON, February, 2006) – Upstart Crow Publishing is a new Independent Publishing Company that focuses on Canadian adaptations of Shakespeare as well as other drama for middle and secondary schools. They start their new enterprise with the launch of six titles on Shakespeare’s birthday (April 23rd, 2006), that were created by Chris Coculuzzi and Matt Toner: Shakespeare’s Rugby Wars, Shakespeare’s World Cup, Shakespeare’s Gladiator Games, Shakespeare’s Comic Olympics, Shakespeare’s NHL (National History League), as well as the entire collection in one volume, Shakespeare’s Sports Canon. All five titles are fast-paced one-act plays that weave Shakespeare’s verse and plots into a clever hybrid of improvised sporting play and spectacle theatre, and combined they contain references and lines from all of Shakespeare’s 38 plays . All five adaptations were originally produced to critical and audience acclaim, consecutively at the 2001-2005 Toronto Fringe Festivals.

Canada and Shakespeare have a long and extensive relationship with one another as evidenced by University of Guelph’s Canadian Adaptations of Shakespeare Project (CASP) and The University of Victoria’s Internet Shakespeare Editions. Upstart Crow Publishing exists to further celebrate that relationship by highlighting and promoting Canadian adaptations to a young audience as a means of introducing young readers and performers to both Shakespeare and Canadian authors. Shakespeare’s Sports Canon, with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek as it ventures through rugby and soccer pitches, a Roman Ludi, bizarre Olympic events, and Canadian street hockey, is the ideal candidate to begin the celebration.