This practical session demonstrates the value of performance-based/kinaesthetic methods as well as the uses of archival material and technology to enrich advanced textual study. There are opportunities for participation and reflection.

Entitled Staging the Witches, this evolving workshop model uses the first scene of Macbeth to explore Shakespeare in performance. It will be delivered in three different contexts: for local school children (ACE Conference), for final-year undergraduates (Core English Module) and for professionals (NYU Shakespeare Forum).

This hybrid of Renaissance text, modern performance history and learner-centred practical work demonstrates ways in which it has been possible to factor an intellectual component into the workshop-based version of our compulsory third-year Shakespeare module at the University of Warwick.

How can performance-based approaches to text combine with archival material to facilitate new interpretations? How can innovative use of space and technology enrich the learning process? How can student responses enrich the pedagogic process?

This workshop was delivered at the Shakespeare Association of America Conference 2010.

Members of the group used our forum as preparation for the workshop in Chicago.