Carol Rutter, (pictured left with David Young from HEFCE) Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies, recently took over the directorship of the CAPITAL Centre from Professor Jonathan Bate. Carol’s main teaching and research areas lie in Shakespeare and performance studies and as Director of the CAPITAL Centre she will work on creating programme and project work to enhance teaching and learning for both undergraduates and postgraduates. She is also keen to develop work with the RSC and to extend the collaboration, for example to the Cheek by Jowl theatre company and Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre.

Carol said: "This partnership offers a great opportunity for actors to access the resources of the University and for students to have direct experience of how actors and directors do what they do with Shakespeare. Jonathan has laid firm foundations. I want to be hands on and take forward CAPITAL’s work getting these two great institutions talking to each other."

CAPITAL is a partnership in creativity between the University and the Royal Shakespeare Company and is one of Warwick's two Centres of Excellence for Teaching and Learning. Funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), the Centre will be moving into brand new accommodation in Milburn House, on the Science Park, in April.

The new accommodation will include a studio and rehearsal room providing spaces for playing with Shakespeare and theatre in a global context, allowing students to actively engage with texts and theatre practitioners. The Centre will also offer a Writers’ Room, a welcoming space for writers from within and outside the University to talk, think, write and perform.

The opening of the building will be celebrated by a two-day student-centred carnival in the Summer term and, at the end of August, CAPITAL will host its first major conference, bringing together academics, theatre practitioners, teachers and enthusiasts to consider Interpreting Shakespeare: The Director, the Actor, the Editor, the Teacher, the Critic.

• For more information about the CAPITAL Centre’s activities visit www.warwick.ac.uk/go/capital