Global Shakespeare Archive » News Archive

Roman Tragedies at The Barbican: A review by Kirsten Billingsley

Fri, 24 Mar 2017 14:11:38 GMT

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. With the assistance of the time line provided on the onstage table, Ivo van Hove’s six-hour evening of Shakespeare’s Roman Tragedies was neatly organized into bite sized pieces...

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Farewell to Prof. Margie Rauen

Wed, 22 Mar 2017 09:04:45 GMT

We are very grateful that Margie came all the way from Universidade Estadual do Centro-Oeste in Brazil to be a Global Shakespeare Visiting Fellow. Margie delivered four seminars on Shakespeare in Brazil, as well as a fascinating Director's Seminar on women’s and gender issues in the creative processes of her plays Ofélias/A-void-ing, Juliets, and Shadows of Sycorax.

We wish her all the best for the future and thanks for all her hard work and support.

^{Image: Margie with Prof. David Schalkwyk (Global Shakespeare's Academic Director) and the 2016/17 class of Practices of Translation.}

A review of Toneelgroep's The Roman Tragedies, by Meg Straw

Tue, 21 Mar 2017 13:47:11 GMT

What. A. Show.

3 tragedies. 6 hours. Entirely in Dutch.

The Roman Tragedies experience at the Barbican in London is not one I will soon forget. Each show was cut down to an average of 90 minutes, with regular 5-minute set changes spaced roughly between every half hour of performance time...

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Student report: Shakespeare in Performance conference

Mon, 27 Feb 2017 11:53:18 GMT

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.

GS alum to give next week's Director's Seminar

Fri, 24 Feb 2017 08:54:09 GMT

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 alum Esther Elliott to speak at the European Shakespeare Research Association

Tue, 21 Feb 2017 09:03:13 GMT

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.

Upcoming Director's Seminar: all welcome!

Wed, 15 Feb 2017 10:24:18 GMT

Dr Jonathan Heron: 'Weirding Shakespeare: performance practice as research'

Thursday 23 February, 17:00 - 19:00, Humanities Building, H5.22

Jonny is a Principal Teaching Fellow and the Deputy Director of the Institute for Advanced Teaching and Learning at the University of Warwick. He works on the interplay between theatre and performance studies, critical and radical pedagogies and the interdisciplinary turn within higher education.

Book a place now!

Shakespeare Society’s “A Night of Mechanicals” – as experienced by Kirsten Billingsley

Mon, 06 Feb 2017 08:45:58 GMT

[Image shows the group doing a dance warm-up to Queen's Don't Stop Me Now (photo from the QMUL Shakespeare Society Facebook events page)

On Friday last, January 27^th, the Queen Mary University London Shakespeare Society, known as Shakes Sox, put together “A Night of Mechanicals.” It was a successful, well-attended, loads of fun evening of Shakespeare scenes organized by Sophie Carty and Lizzie Manwarring. The idea was to bring together groups of 2-4 actors and a director to create five to seven minute scenes to be rehearsed and performed in one evening. As an added challenge, each group was given a prop to incorporate into their scene. Performances included cuts from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, “Is all our company here? Take pains, be perfect”; As You Like It, Rosalind, Celia and Duck Fredrick’s “Get thee from our court” scene; “Do you bite your thumb at me” scene from Romeo and Juliet; and Twelfth Night mock love letter instructing Malvolio to wear cross-gartered yellow stockings...

Global Shakespeare 2016/17 Visiting Fellow, Dr Margie Rauen, to give this week's Director's Seminar

Mon, 06 Feb 2017 08:34:45 GMT

Join us for next week's Director's Seminar

Fri, 27 Jan 2017 11:37:28 GMT