Paul Prescott

Teaching Fellow

Email: paul.prescott.1@warwick.ac.uk

Paul Prescott

Paul has recently joined IATL from the University of California-Merced, where he was Professor of English and Theatre. Previously he spent fifteen years in the English department at Warwick where he twice received a Warwick Award for Teaching Excellence.

Teaching

Paul has a long-standing interest in creative pedagogy. His first position at Warwick was a Fellowship in the CAPITAL Centre (Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning), an RSC-Warwick collaboration exploring performance-based and open-space approaches to teaching. He subsequently held a fellowship in the Reinvention Centre, where he created a prototype module for interdisciplinary teaching at Warwick. With IATL, he plans to develop new modules on Football, on the Arts and Sciences of Persuasion, and on Shakespeare (including an intensive module in Venice). He is also collaborating with colleagues in Theatre Studies and at the Warwick Music Centre to create a new undergraduate module in Musical Theatre.

Practice

Paul’s background is in theatre and specifically Shakespeare Studies. He has taught, acted and adapted Shakespeare across the world. He is active in script adaptation, dramaturgy and rehearsal consultation for a range of professional theatre companies, including the Ferösche Compagnie Link opens in a new window(Faroe Islands), Montana Shakespeare in the Parks, the Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Shakespeare in ParadiseLink opens in a new window (the Bahamas), and the Prague Shakespeare CompanyLink opens in a new window, of which he is an Associate Artist. He has twice acted as an embedded consultant for the National Theatre on its productions of Macbeth (dir. Rufus Norris, 2018-9) and OthelloLink opens in a new window (dir. Clint Dyer, 2022-3). In 2017, he co-founded Shakespeare in YosemiteLink opens in a new window, and in 2019, the EarthShakes Alliance.Link opens in a new window

Writing

Paul has published and collaborated on a number of books, including:

- Shakespeare, Ecology, and Adaptation: A Practical Guide, co-written with Alys Daroy (Arden, forthcoming)

- Macbeth in European Culture: Signifying Everything? edited with Juan Cerda (Arden, forthcoming)

- Shakespeare on European Festival Stages, edited with Florence March and Nicoleta Cinpoes (Arden, 2021)

- Othello: Arden Performance Editions, editor (Arden, 2018)

- Shakespeare on the Global Stage: Performance and Festivity in the Olympic Year, edited with Erin Sullivan (Bloomsbury, 2015)

- Reviewing Shakespeare: Journalism and Performance from the Eighteenth Century to the Present (Cambridge University Press, 2013)

- A Year of Shakespeare: Reliving the World Shakespeare Festival, edited with Paul Edmondson and Erin Sullivan (Bloomsbury, 2013)

Engagement

Paul enjoys engaging with a wide range of audiences both in the UK and overseas. He has been invited to speak - mostly on Shakespeare, and often to general public audiences - across Europe, the US, Asia and Australia. He is most happy collaborating in pluralistic, post-disciplinary spaces that gather together passionate amateurs, scholars, artists and activists. In 2021, he co-organised the ‘Globe 4 Globe’ conference on Shakespeare and ecologyLink opens in a new window at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, London. This online, open-access conference was the first ever to focus exclusively on Shakespeare and the climate crisis.

Paul has also 'appeared' on BBC Radio 4, most recently on In Our TimeLink opens in a new window on Romeo and Juliet and with Emma Smith on Taking Issue with ShakespeareLink opens in a new window.