Teaching Fellow in Theatre and Performance

Director of Practice

Email: Ronan.Hatfull@warwick.ac.uk 

Theatre and Performance Studies
School of Creative Arts, Performance and Visual Cultures
Room FAB1.52 | Faculty of Arts Building | University of Warwick |
University Road | Coventry | CV4 7AL

About

Dr Ronan Hatfull joined Theatre and Performance Studies in 2020. He is a scholar of Shakespeare, adaptation and performance. He received his doctorate in 2019 from Warwick, having completed the first investigation into the history and legacy of the Reduced Shakespeare Company. He created and convenes Adapting Shakespeare for Performance Link opens in a new windowand has had leading role as a seminar tutor and lecturer on modules including Contemporary Performance Practices, From Text to Performance, Practice-based Research Project and You, the Performer.

Ronan also teaches in English and Comparative Literary Studies at Warwick, having convened British Theatre Since 1939 Link opens in a new windowand Remaking ShakespeareLink opens in a new window, and taught on Epic to NovelLink opens in a new window and European TheatreLink opens in a new window. His work beyond Warwick includes lecturing on Shakespeare at NYU London. Ronan received the Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence Commendation in 2022. He was nominated for the same award in 2024.

Ronan has published widely on Shakespeare’s legacy on page, stage and screen, including the Bridge Theatre production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the films All Is True and Bill, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the television series Doctor Who, Game of Thrones and Upstart Crow, and the novelist Cormac McCarthy. Ronan has written for Shakespeare BulletinLink opens in a new window, Reviewing ShakespeareLink opens in a new window and Action is eloquence: (Re)thinking ShakespeareLink opens in a new window.

Ronan is currently working on Shakespeare in the Theatre: Reduced Shakespeare Company (Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2025), a monograph based on his doctoral thesis, which has been contracted for inclusion in Bloomsbury's Shakespeare in the Theatre series. He has also co-edited Shakespeare and Biofiction on the Contemporary Stage and Screen Link opens in a new window(Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, 2023) with Dr Edel Semple, which was published in November 2023. He has co-led and participated in numerous seminars and roundtables at international conferences and recently organised and chaired a roundtable on improvising Shakespeare at BSA 2023.

Ronan is an actor, playwright, director, dramaturg and musician. He is co-founder and artistic director of theatre company Partners RaptLink opens in a new window. Their work includes the lockdown performance collective Partners Rapt Read Plays, Ronan's two funded new plays, and three productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company’s Dell Festival, the most recent of which featured Ronan as Prince Hal/Thor in Henry the Thorth (also co-director, dramaturg and musician) at the Dell.

Ronan is a singer-songwriter and guitarist, having performed at several festivals in his native Berkshire, and has played bass with the band A Dirty Sould since early 2024, including a charity event in August 2024 at The Corn Exchange to raise money for Children with Cancer UK.

Research interests

• Adaptation studies
• Biographical fiction
• Contemporary British theatre
• Metamodernism
• Reduction and abridgement
• Shakespeare and popular culture
• Shakespeare in performance

Teaching history

• Acting in Character (2020-21)
• Adapting Shakespeare for Performance (also Module Convener) (2021-present)
• British Theatre Since 1939 (also Module Convener) (2019-20; 2023-24)
• Contemporary Performance Practices (2021-22)
• Epic into Novel (2021-23)
• European Theatre (2020-23)
• From Text to Performance (2020-present)
• Local/Global Shakespearience (2023-24)
• Practice-based Research Project (2022-24)
• Remaking Shakespeare (2016-17; 2019-20; 2022-23; 2024-45)
• Research Dissertation (2022-present)
• Theatre and Performance in Context (2021-present)
• You, The Performer: presence and affect (2020-23)
• Your Theatre and Performance Toolkit (2021-22)

Selected publications

Monographs

In publication:

• Semple, Edel and Ronan Hatfull (ed) (2023), Shakespeare and Biofiction on the Contemporary Stage and Screen, London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare.

Forthcoming:

• Hatfull, Ronan (2026), Shakespeare in the Theatre: Reduced Shakespeare Company, London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare.

Special Issues

In publication:

• Hatfull, Ronan (2021), Teaching Shakespeare 21: Teaching Shakespeare in Lockdown, British Shakespeare Association.

Book chapters

Forthcoming:

• Hatfull, Ronan (2023), Entries on David Tennant, House of Cards, Shakespeare Live! From The RSC (2016), Stoker and the Marvel Cinematic Universe in, The Palgrave Encyclopaedia of Global Shakespeare, in Alexa Alice Joubin (ed), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Shakespeare, Palgrave Macmillan.

In publication:

• Hatfull, Ronan (2020), ‘Reduced Shakespeare Company’ in, Alexa Alice Joubin (ed), The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Shakespeare, Palgrave Macmillan.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2020), ‘Bill Begins: The Rise of the Contemporary Shakespeare “Origin Story”’ in, (ed) Marina Gerzić and Aidan Norrie, Irreverence and Play in Shakespearean Adaptation, 160-177, New York and London: Routledge, 2020)
• Hatfull, Ronan (2020), ‘“Keeping the Dream Alive’: Nicholas Hytner’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2019)’ in, Nicolas Tredell (ed), Critical Insights into A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 208-224, New York: Grey House Publishing.

Journal articles

In publication:

• Hatfull, Ronan (2022), ‘“My dearest partner of greatness”: The legacy of the Macbeths’ relationship in House of Cards and Vice’, Coup de théâtre.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2021), ‘Adapting The Merchant of Venice for Radio: An Interview with Emma Harding, adapter and director for BBC Radio Drama’, Shakespeare 17 (4): 507-521.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2020), ‘“That’s One of Mine”: The Upstart Cannibal in Shakespearean Biofiction’, Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal 7 (3): 45-64.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2019), ‘“Shakespeare in the Park?”: William Shakespeare and the Marvel Cinematic Universe’, Foundation, 48 (4): 45-57.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2017), ‘“Some Scurrilous King”: Judge Holden and the Spectre of Shakespeare’s Monarchs in Blood Meridian’, Postgraduate English 35: 1–27.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2016), ‘“Excess of It”: William Shakespeare’s Long Lost First Play (abridged) at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016’, Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal 4 (1): 61–67.

Reviews

• Hatfull, Ronan (2024), ‘Performance review: Macbeth by Max WebsterLink opens in a new window’, Cahiers Élisabéthains, 113 (1): 175-181.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2024), ‘Performance review: King Lear by Kenneth Branagh’Link opens in a new window, Cahiers Élisabéthains 113 (1): 165-169.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2021), ‘The Complete Deaths: Review’, Shakespeare Bulletin 39 (1): 175-179.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2021), ‘Play Review: Romeo and Juliet by Simon Godwin’, Cahiers Élisabéthains 106 (1): 98-102.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2021), ‘All is True by Kenneth Branagh (review)’, Shakespeare Bulletin 38 (1): 117-121.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2019), ‘Upstart Crow Season Three’, Shakespeare Bulletin 37 (2): 300-303.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2018), ‘Macbeth @ The National Theatre, dir. Rufus Norris, 2018’, Reviewing Shakespeare.
• Hatfull, Ronan (2016), ‘King Lear at the Old Vic, dir. Deborah Warner, 2016’ in Reviewing Shakespeare.

Selected Online Publications

• “I’m Jay-Z on a bad day, Shakespeare on my worst days”: When rappers cite ShakespeareLink opens in a new window in Shakespeare & Beyond (Folger Shakespeare Library (2021)
• ‘An Interview with Rob Myles of The Show Must Go Online’ in ‘Action is eloquence’: (Re)thinking Shakespeare (2020).
• “‘I’ll Teach You How To Flow”: The Hip-Hop Shakespeare Pedagogy of the Sonnet Man’ in ‘Action is eloquence’: (Re)thinking Shakespeare (2020).
• ‘“Let the Devil Wear Black”: Shakespeare’s Bio-fictional Presence in Good Omens’ in ‘Action is eloquence’: (Re)thinking Shakespeare (2020).
• ‘“Finally You Put Me First”: Love on Top in NT Live: A Midsummer Night’s Dream @ The Bridge Theatre in ‘Action is eloquence’: (Re)thinking Shakespeare (2020).
• ‘Why Judge Holden is one of literature’s greatest villains’ in Research English at Durham (2018).

Funding and Awards

2024: £800 Humanities Research Fund award.

2024: Nominated for the Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence

2022: £150 award for a Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence Commendation.

2022: £500 award from the Warwick Institute of Engagement to run a workshop ‘“To Tell My Story”: Remaking Hamlet’ as part of the Coventry City of Culture 2021 and the University of Warwick’s Resonate Campus Festival April 2022.

2022: £400 travel grant from the SAA to attend its 50th Annual Meeting in Jacksonville, Florida.

2019: £400 travel grant from the SAA to attend its 47th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

2019: £90 bursary from the BSA to attend the BSA Conference 2019 at Swansea University.

2018: £90 bursary from the BSA to attend the BSA Conference 2018 at Queen’s University Belfast.

2018: Best Abstract Award for ‘Bill Begins: The Rise of the Shakespeare “Origin Story”’ at The British Shakespeare Graduate Conference 2018, The Shakespeare Institute.

2018: £100 award from the BSA Small Events Fund to develop my new play ‘Marlowe and Me’.

2017: £100 bursary from the Centre for Arts Doctoral Research Excellence (CADRE) at the University of Warwick to run an interdisciplinary workshop on ‘Reducing Shakespeare’ for the CADRE Peer-to-Peer Development Exchange.

2016: £90 bursary from the BSA to attend the BSA Conference 2016 at the University of Hull.

2015: £1000 grant from the Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning (IATL) at the University of Warwick to pursue research into the works of Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett and Cormac McCarthy through a dystopian lens, culminating in a collaborative performance ‘This Blasted Heath’.

2015: £100 bursary from CADRE to run a Shakespearean workshop “‘Blood Will Have Blood”: The Aestheticization of Violence in Shakespeare Through the Ages’ for the CADRE Peer-to-Peer Development Exchange.

2014: Shared funding from The University of Birmingham for a filmed version of ‘Shakespeare Unbard’, a project which I co-wrote and in which I performed, at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.

2013: £200 grant from IATL, enabling me to film my first play, ‘Not You Will’, with a professional actor.

Qualifications

• PhD: English and Comparative Literary Studies (University of Warwick)
• MA: Shakespeare and Creativity (The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham)
• BA: English and Theatre Studies (University of Warwick)

Professional associations

• Associate Fellow of Advance HE (AFHEA)
• Member of the Association of Adaptation Studies (AAS).
• Member of the British Shakespeare Association (BSA).
• Member of the European Research Shakespeare Association (ESRA).
• Member of the Shakespeare Association of America (SAA).

Practice and Outreach

• 2024: Director of Henry the Thorth as part of Resonate's The Big Read 2024 in Warwick's Faculty of Arts Building. You can read more about the event here: https://www.resonatefestival.co.uk/stories/foac-24
• 2024: Lecturer for Warwick's Widening Participitation initative to bring theatre to local secondary school pupils.
• 2021: Director of the Living Theatre Peace Camp to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Greenham Women's Peace Camp.
• 2020-21: Guest Speaker on the Reduced Shakespeare Company podcast episodes: Episode 748: Analyzing Shakespearean Biofiction and Episode 749: More Shakespearean Biofiction, where I discussed the running of a seminar on Shakespearean biofiction at SAA 2021 with my co-seminar leader Dr Edel Semple.
• 2020-present: Co-Founder/Artistic Director of Partners Rapt Read Plays, a theatre collective which participates in weekly play readings of plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries on Zoom. I established this initiative in response to the Covid-19 lockdown in order to provide professional and amateur theatre-makers and performers with creative opportunities. I am responsible for conceptual design and dramaturgy. The performances have included international participation from France, Italy, UK and USA.
• 2019-20: Workshop Leader for Transformations.
• 2019-20: Co-Founder/Writer at ‘Action is eloquence’: (Re)thinking Shakespeare in October 2019, a blog which focuses on Shakespeare in adaptation and performance and is listed in the World Shakespeare Bibliography, receiving considerable exposure since its launch.
• 2018-19: Co-Designer and Writer for Walk You Will, an interdisciplinary, charity project and exhibition with the photographer, David Hatfull, in collaboration with Dr Paul Edmondson and Professor Sir Stanley Wells.
• 2018-19: Guest Speaker on the Reduced Shakespeare Company podcast: Episode 627: Doctor of Reduction, where I discussed the completion of my PhD.
• 2017-18: Guest Speaker on the Reduced Shakespeare Company podcast: Episode 505: Retracing Shakespeare’s Steps, where I discussed Walk You Will.
• 2016-17: Guest Speaker on the Reduced Shakespeare Company podcast: Episode 488: Studying Reduced Shakespeare, where I discussed by PhD research into the company with Managing Partner Austin Tichenor.
• 2016-present: Writer for The 730 Review, an online arts publication for which I have contributed theatre, film and music reviews, opinion pieces and interviews.

Partners Rapt

• I am the Artistic Director and a founding member of Partners Rapt, an emerging theatre company which specialises in the reinterpretation of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
• My directing credits at Warwick include Much Ado About Nothing, King Lear, The Tempest and Twelfth Night, as well as several new writing projects, including my first play, Not You Will, which was awarded a grant from Warwick's Institute of Advanced Teaching and Learning, enabling me to film the project with a professional actor.
• At the Shakespeare Institute, I continued to pursue my interest in new writing, including collaborating on Shakespeare Unbard (staged at the RSC in 2013); working as Co-Head Writer on Running Brook; and writing Partners Rapt, which explores Shakespeare’s power couples and their role within popular culture.
• Partners Rapt was staged in January 2015 at Warwick, funded by the University’s new writing and Shakespeare societies. An extract was published in Inspired by Shakespeare in April 2016, a new book celebration the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death.
• I received a £1000 grant from IATL in 2015 to pursue research into staging dystopia through the work of William Shakespeare, Samuel Beckett and Cormac McCarthy, culminating in a collaborative performance during June 2015 entitled This Blasted Heath.
• I served as adapter, dramaturg and composer on Julius Caesar, a production rehearsed throughout the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election and performed a week after Donald Trump's election, exploring the resonance of Shakespeare's play with those political events.
• I next served as dramaturg for an immersive 2017 production of Macbeth, which explored the cold war and gated communities.
• In Summer 2017, I created two outdoor productions: Hell is Empty, a new play which imagines a purgatorial meeting between Iago, Cleopatra and Falstaff after their deaths, and a site-specific production of Twelfth Night.
• I have served as Actor/Composer/Musician in productions of The Comedy of Errors (2017), Much Ado About Nothing (2018) and As You Like It (2019) at the Royal Shakespeare Company's open-air Dell Festival.
• I was co-director, dramaturg and adapter the Partners Rapt production of Henry IV Part 1 (renamed Henry the Thorth) at the Royal Shakespeare Company's Dell Festival in Stratford-upon-Avon. I also played Prince Hal and worked as a musician in the production.

Office hours

FAB1.46

Mondays 11am-1pm

Teaching in 2023/24

Theatre and Performance Studies

Adapting Shakespeare for Performance

From Text to Performance

English and Comparative Literary Studies

Remaking Shakespeare