Playing Hamlet Roulette: EXIT Press spotlight and Mark Jackson book release party

Join EXIT Theatre’s publishing arm EXIT Press to celebrate our eighth year, and the recent publication of our 24th book, Mark Jackson’s Playing Hamlet Roulette: Failure, Expectation, Possibility & Democracy!

Just over two years ago, Shotgun Players company member and EXIT Theatre alumnus, Mark Jackson, undertook one of the biggest challenges of his career: staging a production of Hamlet, at the Shotgun Players’ Ashby Stage, in which every performer drew their role from Yorick’s skull five minutes before showtime, their lines and character for that evening’s performance determined by chance—and months of rigorous rehearsal preceding the run. At the end of 2017, Jackson, a four-time author with EXIT Press, published an investigation and summary of the project, and the themes that emerged from its creation: failure, expectation, possibility, and democracy.

We’ll be celebrating with a reading by Jackson, and a panel discussion/open conversation with performers from Jackson’s hit experiment, Hamlet Roulette, as they discuss the creative roles that failure, expectation, possibility, and democracy played in relation to creating the work that brought them together, the willingness to embrace them as part of the creative process, and the implications of artistic risk.

This event is free and open to the public, no reservations required. Jackson’s books, and our other EXIT Press titles, will be available for purchase.