by Kirsten Billingsley (Global Shakespeare MA 2016/17)

Wow! All I can say is wow! The Shakespeare in Performance conference was so worth the time to attend. I can't believe it was free.

Dr. Stephen Purcell's presentation of "Whose Experiment is it Anyway?" directly related to much of what we have been talking about in our core module. Not directly expressed for Global Shakespeare, the examples of academics and practitioners informing one another's choices provided a further rich context for appropriations and working on global adaptations.

View point exercises with Dr. Jaq Bessell and Director Tim Supple were immensely engaging, and probably my favorite part of the conference. Generally self-conscious with experimenting with movement and emoting, their approaches invited emotional, vocal and physical exploration of Shakespeare's lines and characters in a safe environment with what became a cohesive, like-minded group - including the convener. What a workout!

The grad students provided much needed examples of research, writing and presentation. All three were well-spoken with interesting content. I do wish I had been able to see the other three presenters. We had to choose as they were presenting in two venues simultaneously. I chose the session which included a "Practice-as-Research" in the hope of building on the Director's Seminar, an introduction to the MSND directed by Tim Supple, whom we would be working with after lunch, and "To Weather a Play" advertised as sustainable Shakespeare. The last had to do with a living willow outdoor reproduction of The Globe stage as a performance space.

Though last and at the end of a Saturday, Tony Howard gave thought provoking historical information in his presentation on Black Shakespeare productions. The turn out wasn't what they had hoped, as expressed by Prof. Howard after the event. It is too bad that those on the waiting list were not instructed to turn up to take the place of no shows. I am so very glad to have registered early.

It was not a compulsory unit for our program, but I wish it had been. Mind. Blown. Oh, and by the way, the food was fantastic! We were even gifted some great swag. Ms. Stephanie Tillotson, I believe, is to be congratulated on a fantastic job.

Join us to find out about Giulia Champion's doctoral research. Giulia graduated from the MA in Global Shakespeare last year.

Giulia Champion, 'The Empire Bites Back: Literary Cannibalism in African, Caribbean and South American Postcolonial Rewritings of the 'Western Literary Canon'

This paper focuses, on the one hand, on questioning the notion of canonicity and how literature is taught in higher education, and on the other hand, how rewriting these 'classics' through the creative process of literary cannibalism aims to construct a proper identity for former colonies and insert it into the intellectual and cultural sphere.

Giulia is an alumna of Global Shakespeare, and is currently undertaking a PhD at Warwick.

Thursday 2 March, 17:00 - 19:00, H5.22, Humanities Building

• Book a place now!

Global Shakespeare warmly congratulates Esther Elliott on having a paper accepted for the forthcoming European Shakespeare Research Association conference in Gdansk (27 - 30 July 2017). Running alongside the Gdansk Shakespeare Festival, the conference brings together Shakespeare scholars from around the world (including friends of Global Shakespeare Thea Buckley (Shakespeare Institute) and Timo Uotinen (Royal Hollway)).

Esther will present a paper entitled 'Softening up Shakespeare: Powering up Shakespeare in the Global Race', which builds on the work begun in her MA dissertation. She will be part of the 'Shakespeare and the Politics of Location' seminar.