BBA Shakespeare news latest
Diversity: Peter Bazalgette's speech
I want to begin by talking a little about our changing society, and our cultural traditions...
The Chair of Arts Council England's statement on diversity. Read it here.
...The plain fact is that despite many valuable, well-intentioned policies over the past decade, when it comes to diversity, we have not achieved what we intended...
Robeson Sang!
Radio 4 documentary series on the hidden secrets of the information age - linked to the Science Museum's newest gallery - includes a programme on Paul Robeson's extraordinary transatlantic concert, from New York to St. Pancras Town Hall. At the time he was campaigning for his passport to be returned to him - in order to play Gower in Pericles at Stratford-upon-Avon.
Listen here:robeson sang
BBAS at the Mercury Theatre Colchester
Macbeth at the Colchester Mercury.
Andrew Clarke, East Anglian Daily Times, 7.10.2014
No matter that we see ourselves as civilised, that we try and improve ourselves or reboot our society, when, in actual fact, we are who we are. Shakespeare was able to take these stories and make them resonant for us and timeless ...
.... My first experience of Shakespeare was studying Macbeth for O-level and I instantly got it. Then in sixth form I played Macbeth in a full school production and that was a turning point for me as an actor because it enabled me to make that connection with an audience.
He said that one of the great joys of his life is now working with the British Black and Asian Shakespeare Project trying to research the hidden history of Black and Asian Shakespearean performers in the years since Paul Robeson played Othello in 1930.
“It came out of a short piece I did in 2012 on Paul Robeson and the fact that he came over to England from America to play Othello. He wouldn’t have been allowed to that in his own country.... What we are trying to do is get all the surviving Black and Asian actors we can to be interviewed about their Shakespearean life and we want to get testimony, via our website, from audiences about performances they have seen involving Black or Asian actors.
“What we want to do is create a true history because it hasn’t been written or talked about with any authority until now.”
Macbeth is at the Colchester Mercury until October 18.