‘Bardolph’s Box’ Blog – ‘It looked like TV but better’

1st June 2016

This is a guest blog post from Nicola Pollard, a member of the touring Bardolph’s Box production, sponsored by the BSA (http://www.uptheroadtheatre.co.uk/bardolphs-box/).

Some might say there is no greater praise from a child for a performance in this day and age than ‘It looked like TV but better’. Perhaps the fact it was live in front of them, and the fact that they could engage directly with the actors made it better. Or the colourful set and the magnificent Box, all there in front of them, within touching distance in many cases.

In this second blog about our touring production ‘Bardolph’s Box’, generously supported by the BSA, I’d like to share some feedback from our audiences. Thanks to the marvellous Catherine Rose we have terrific insights from both children and their teachers. Having toured with the production I could see the children enjoying the performance (and those that weren’t), nonetheless statistics such as ‘Over 90% of children surveyed really enjoyed or enjoyed the performance’ are highly satisfactory to read. Some of their own comments are interesting too, with one child commenting they felt ‘discombobulated’ by the experience, another was ‘overjoyed’ and another was ‘annoyed’ – I think this might have been at the open ending, our critics were divided!

Children also reported that they liked the fact it was funny, that it was easy to understand and the actors were confident. It is fascinating what the young audiences picked up, and how their opinions vary. Some said they didn’t know any Shakespeare plays so they didn’t enjoy the production, others seemed to acknowledge that not knowing the plays was part of the fun. There were certainly moments when children were pleased they recognised characters, largely Macbeth’s witches or Puck. One child told me he didn’t understand why Cleopatra was in the play, and looked utterly unconvinced when he discovered Shakespeare had written a play about her.

It is always gratifying when your work goes down well, even more so for ‘Bardolph’s Box’, it being our first production. I’m pleased to report that teachers enjoyed and appreciated the experience, with 100% saying the show had high production values, and all of those surveyed saying they would be ‘very’ or ‘quite likely’ to book a performance by Up The Road or Unity Theatre in the future. Our resource pack, Bardolph’s Toolbox, has also gone down very well, with a number of teachers describing how they plan to further engage their pupils with Shakespeare. I hope they do because I believe if we can get young people on Shakespeare’s side at this early stage, studying the plays later could prove a much smoother ride.

Finally I would like to highlight one of the most valuable comments from all the feedback, from one of our teachers: “‘Bardolph’s Box’ reminded me of the importance of stagecraft to bring his stories to life”. Absolutely. Let’s keep persevering to remind more people of this, and bringing educators, practitioners and pupils together to experience this stagecraft for themselves.

‘[O]ur wits are so diversely coloured’: Thoughts on the 2016 Disability and Shakespearean Theatre Symposium at Glasgow University

1st June 2016

By Jessi Parrot (@messijessijumps)

In the public imagination, it would seem, disability and Shakespeare are not the most obvious pairing – that is, if the recent adaptation of the London tube map to feature all of Shakespeare’s characters in place of station names is anything to go by. Indeed, according to the image, commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company and to be found here, Richard III provides the only example of disability representation, which is denoted by the presence of the wheelchair symbol that usually signifies an accessible station. To the casual observer, then, convening a full day conference on the meeting points of these two subjects would be a futile exercise – not least because the most frequent references to impairment come in the form of (potentially offensive) metaphors like the following one, taken from one of the Chorus’ Prologue speeches in Henry V, referring to the impatient French:

And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night
Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp
So tediously away. (Henry V – Act IV, Prologue, ll. 21-23)

Those who read Shakespeare specifically in relation to disability know that such beliefs are reductive (and indeed false), of course – and what the symposium at Glasgow did so wonderfully was to bring together a group of people who shared the primary aim of debunking them. When thinking of the noun with which I might best encapsulate the day, which I was given the opportunity to attend through a bursary from the British Shakespeare Association, what came to mind was ‘spectrum’. Following a search of the concordance at Open Source Shakespeare, it seems that this is a word which, although documented as in use during at least part of his lifetime, is one of the few that is entirely absent from Shakespeare’s works. The phrase I have chosen for the half-title of this blog post (‘our wits are so diversely coloured’) was found by way of a synonym from the period, ‘compass’, and appears near the word in a speech from the Third Citizen in Coriolanus. It suited as a description because it not only evokes the diversity of the human condition (which was represented in microcosm by the presenters at the symposium) but the equally diverse nature of the topics we brought with us.

The spectrum was evident from the opening moments of the keynote address, given by Prof Chris Mounsey of The University of Winchester, who began by stating that he felt both ironic and inadequate, being an eighteenth-centuryist positioned as the academic authority for a day focused around a sixteenth-century playwright. His presentation centred on the application of the concept of VariAbility to Shakespeare’s corpus (a word I have used here in full cognisance of its dual denotation of both physical and literary bodies). He asked us to consider alternative ways of reading the manner in which difference is presented in the works of the Bard. Whilst he had much to share that was definitely ironic, it was more than adequate, and set the tone for the rest of the day – a sort of enamoured and informed irreverence.

The panels which followed were similarly eclectic. These comprised of papers with subjects ranging from an analysis of Growing Up Downs (the fairly recent BBC documentary on an amateur production of Hamlet involving people with learning disabilities); or the implications of choosing, perhaps, to cast ‘Hamlet in a wheelchair’; to the potential staging decisions regarding Lavinia’s prostheses in Titus Andronicus; and the suggestion of reading King Lear with Lennard Davis’ concept of the ‘dismodern’ (a postmodern understanding of bodies that is fully incorporative of disability) in mind. My own contribution involved an analysis of the use of Shakespeare’s texts, and especially The Tempest, during the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games of London 2012.

Where these presentations explored the significance of a disability-based reading of characters easily identified in Shakespeare, others sought to emphasise an absence. For instance, in acknowledging the copious metaphorical references to deafness across his works, one recognises the comparative paucity of representation given to Deaf characters (as opposed to the deliberate deafness employed by hearing individuals for a purpose usually involving manipulation). Similarly, one might not at first notice the reliance on the literal structures of our musculoskeletal system that pervades the plays or, if it has been noted, it could easily (wrongly) be dismissed as unnecessary over-reading.

These two apparent opposites of presence and absence found their propinquity in the final session, a presentation given by two co-ordinators of the Shakespeare Schools Festival, an annual UK-wide festival of performances of his plays by schoolchildren. This programme helps teachers and pupils to engage differently with the most prominent playwright on the school curriculum and, through the eventual productions, aims to bring together groups of people from the same areas who might never otherwise interact. In doing so, it offers me a helpful segue to the other aspect of the symposium that was extremely thought-provoking and helpful – the styles of delivery and teaching.

For, just as disability both necessitates and offers alternative possibilities of reading, it both requires and allows inventive ways of disseminating the information that these readings discover. This was accepted by both organisers and attendees as a given, even before the day itself, and accommodations and adaptations were plentiful and managed with respect. Whether it was sudden travel difficulties which rendered physical presence impossible, repeated cancellations of sign-language interpreters, or difficulty handling materials, there was a solution. Each presenter was asked to provide a draft version of their paper for digital pre-circulation, which then allowed speedy access and editing during presentations and removed the need for an interpreter for at least the duration of the panels. Distance was quickly surmounted via the medium of Skype. As with the topics of presentations, the precedent for these alternatives was set by Chris Mounsey’s keynote, which he split with his assistant Stan, in order to minimise the strain on his eyes. This took the form of a quasi-Socratic dialogue, which meant that the digital version of his slides read much like the play scripts of his subject, and that their repartee was full of deliberately dramatic flair. For me, as a wheelchair user who, being a first year doctoral student, am just beginning my venture into the realms of teaching seminars, this was extremely confidence-boosting. I now know that it is not only possible, but perfectly acceptable, to incorporate (pun very much intended) my bodily difference into the way I interact with students.

This link to my earlier mention of both the literary and literal uses of ‘corpus’, then, allows me to conclude with the overarching message I took from this wonderful day. What struck me throughout this symposium was just how much our bodies inform the way we read and, equally, how much what we read can inform the ways we consider our bodies. I learnt so much from the day and the people I met there, and am still reaping the benefits nearly two months later. I could not have wished for a better or more supportive fit for my first conference, and I will be eternally grateful to everyone who helped introduce me to, to use the words of The Tempest that were central to my paper, this ‘brave new world’ where disability earns its rightful place as a frame of reference.

Sponsored Places at NATE 2016 for BSA Members

24th May 2016

The British Shakespeare Association has decided to sponsor attendance by two teachers of English and/or Drama at the forthcoming NATE Annual Conference which is scheduled to take place in Stratford-upon-Avon (at the Holiday Inn Hotel) on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 June 2016. Sponsorship would cover attendance for one of the two days of the event for each teacher and reasonable transport costs – but would not include accommodation expenses.

Any current teacher of English and/or Drama (who is a member of the BSA) working in a school or college (primary, secondary, Sixth Form – or equivalent) is eligible to apply. In return for this sponsorship arrangement, the British Shakespeare Association would expect those attending to be take part in at least one of the following at the event: informally promote the BSA’s education network; hand out back copies of Teaching Shakespeare and of BSA leaflets; talk to delegates about BSA opportunities and publications during the course of informal networking. There will be no requirement to give a more formal talk. In addition, successful applicants for the sponsorship might like to consider writing a short report about their experience at the Conference (by 30 August) for publication on the BSA’s Education Network blog – although this is not a condition of sponsorship.

If you are interested in applying for one of these two places at the NATE conference then please send a short statement (up to 300 words) outlining the reasons why you are keen to attend to Chris Green, BSA Teaching Trustee (cejgreen@hotmail.com) by Sunday 5 June. You should state your professional position and the name of your employer – and provide an institutional email address as a point of contact.

Applications Invited for the Positions of Treasurer and Membership Officer

20th May 2016

The Board of the British Shakespeare Association is looking to appoint a new leadership team from September 2016 onwards, when the current Chair, the Treasurer and the Membership Officer will all stand down. This is an exciting opportunity to join the Board of the BSA during the year of Shakespeare’s quartercentenary and help take the BSA forward. Details of the BSA and the Treasurer and Membership Officer roles are given below. The Chair position will be advertised separately.

We are committed to equality of opportunity for everyone and welcome applications from individuals regardless of their background.

About the BSA

The BSA was founded in 2002 with a mission to bring together academics, teachers, theatre practitioners and other people who work with Shakespeare’s texts into a professional association. In 2007, the BSA was incorporated as a charitable company limited by guarantee with a commitment to educate the general public about Shakespeare and his works. The BSA typically has around 300 paid up members and over 1000 members on its database. Members pay an annual subscription fee of £25 although there are also concessionary rates and since 2014 all Schools-based members have been given free membership. The BSA’s flagship event is its Biennial Conference, which brings together Shakespeareans from all of its communities to discuss latest research and the most recent insights into teaching and performance. Between conferences, the BSA runs a number of other events, most notably an annual Honorary Fellows event. We appoint two Honorary Fellows a year  – past Fellows include Stanley Wells, Chris Grace, Janet Suzman, Cicely Berry and John Russell Brown. The BSA is also associated with two publications: Teaching Shakespeare, a journal edited by Sarah Olive and published through the BSA; and Shakespeare: the Journal of the British Shakespeare Association, which is published by Routledge and is considered to be one of the best academic journals on Shakespeare in the world. The BSA also has a website, www.britishshakespeare.ws, through which news relating to Shakespeare and the BSA is disseminated.

About the Board of Trustees

The Board of Trustees (which is also a Board of Directors) is made up of: 4 Officers, 6 elected Trustees, and 3 ex officio Trustees representing the Shakespeare Institute, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the Routledge Journal. Three committees also report directly to the Board: the Events Committee, the Fellowship Committee and the Education Committee. The Chairs of these Committees are appointed by the Board and are entitled to attend Board meetings, but can only vote if they are also Trustees. The Board meets three times a year, usually in Stratford-upon-Avon, and holds one Annual General Meeting. As well as overseeing the various activities of the BSA, the Board is responsible for ensuring good governance and for ensuring compliance with auditing requirements for Companies House and the Charity Commission. The Board’s work is governed by three documents: its Articles of Association, the Rules of the BSA, and the Financial Procedures of the BSA. Meetings typically last 2-hours and currently follow a standing agenda.

Treasurer

The Treasurer is responsible for making sure that the charity follows its financial procedures and complies with Companies House and Charity Commission regulations. The Treasurer will advise the Board on its financial position through regular updates at Board meetings and will present an annual report to the Annual General Meeting. The Treasurer is also responsible for keeping good financial records including receipts, invoices and other financial documents for audit purposes as well as managing payments in and out of the BSA bank and Paypal accounts throughout the year. When appropriate the Treasurer will also be involved in negotiating contracts and managing employment issues. The BSA works with an independent auditor for its annual accounting and the Treasurer is responsible for liaising with the auditor in preparing and presenting those financial records in a timely manner.

Essential Criteria:

1.  Excellent organizational skills and is familiar with financial regulations.
2. Good numeracy, IT literacy and record keeping skills.
3. The ability to work with the other Officers as part of a leadership team.

Because the Board uses independent auditors, it is not necessary for the Treasurer to have accountancy skills or experience, but experience of working with budgets will be an advantage. The Treasurer will either be a member of the BSA who has demonstrated their commitment to its values or they will have substantial experience working the Board of a related charity.

For an informal discussion about the work of the Treasurer, you may contact Dr Smith directly.

Membership Officer

The main duties of the Membership Officer include managing new membership applications and renewals, maintaining the BSA membership database and advising the Board on issues relating to membership, including its composition and strategies to grow membership through a report delivered to each Board meeting. The Membership Officer is also responsible for engaging with members through periodic email bulletins.

The Board wishes to appoint an individual from the current membership who has excellent IT skills including the ability to manage an online database, excellent organisational skills and good interpersonal and communication skills.

This role is currently being held by Dr. Peter Kirwan, who will step down in October 2016. The new Membership Officer will take up the position in the summer of 2016 and will work with Dr Kirwan until October before assuming full duties. Much of the role is internet based. The BSA uses a membership management system called Groupspaces. Prior knowledge of this is not expected or required and informal training will be provided, but you should be used to dealing with internet-based systems. The busiest time for the Membership Officer is usually around September-October, when the new Membership year starts.

For an informal discussion about the work of the Membership Officer, you may contact Dr Kirwan directly.

Commitments

Both roles are volunteer positions and are not remunerated, but reasonable expenses will be met. All roles are required to report to three meetings of the BSA a year (usually held in Stratford-upon-Avon) and one Annual General Meeting of the Membership. In addition, all three roles require additional work between meetings, most of which is conducted online via email or through telephone conferencing. Both posts are potentially permanent subject to renewal by the Board on an annual basis. Currently, the Treasurer role is supported by a Deputy who will help manage the transition from the current Officer team to the new one.

The Membership Officer expected to take up his/her appointment in Summer 2016 to begin shadowing Dr Peter Kirwan. The Treasurer will assume his/her duties upon confirmation of appointment at the BSA’s Biennial Conference in Hull in September 2016 and will be expected to attend that conference.

Application

To apply for the role of Membership Officer or Treasurer, please send a letter of application, a curriculum vitae and the names of two referees to britishshakespeareassociation@gmail.com by the deadline of 10^th June 2016.

Shortlisted applicants will be asked to participate in an interview in the first week of July.

For an informal discussion about these roles please contact Stuart Hampton-Reeves, the outgoing Chair of the Board: shampton-reeves@uclan.ac.uk

Irish Renaissance Seminar Report

11th May 2016

The Queen’s University Belfast meeting of the Irish Renaissance Seminar (7 May 2016), generously supported by the British Shakespeare Association, got off to a great start with the cutting of the Globe Theatre Cake, which was very much enjoyed by the 40 delegates from NI/Ireland and the US in attendance.

The opening plenary, ‘The Curiosity of Nations: Communities of Shakespeare in the Twenty-First Century’, by Prof. Sheila Cavanagh (Emory University and Fulbright/Global Shakespeare Centre Distinguished Chair), offered a fascinating glimpse into how Shakespeare can be debated across the world in a ground-breaking fashion via interactive classroom experiences. We then moved to wonderful shorter papers (Emer McHugh, NUI Galway, and Dr Edel Semple, UC Cork) on the Druid Shakespeare and Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth respectively which prompted lively reflection on the place of Shakespeare in regional and media contexts. Dr Stephen O’Neill’s (Maynooth University) plenary on ‘“It is the digital, / The digital above us, govern our conditions”: Shakespeare, (Mis)quotation and Digital Cultures’ followed, this furnishing delegates with rich insights into the cultural work attached to online Shakespearean communities.

Complementing and enhancing discussion was the concluding roundtable with Andrea Montgomery, director of the Terra Nova intercultural theatre group and of the Belfast Tempest, a stunning and epoch-making adaptation of Shakespeare’s play utilizing Belfast histories and a cast of hundreds. Andrea was joined by cast member, Ilana Gilovich, in the roundtable. On the social side, delegates attended the launch of the British Council/QUB Exhibition, ‘Shakespeare Lives through Kenneth Branagh on Stage and Screen’, at the Queen’s Film Theatre, and also heard about the extraordinarily wide range of public-facing events being put on as part of the British Council supported Shakespeare 400 initiative, Shakespeare Lives Across the Island: Conversations and Celebrations. A convivial dinner at the French Village Restaurant rounded off the day’s activities.

Call for Abstracts: Shakespeare in Higher Education in East and South East Asia

4th May 2016

Members of the BSA may be interested by the following call for abstracts.

Call for abstracts – Shakespeare in higher education in East and South East Asia

This is a call for chapter abstracts for a Palgrave Pivot edited collection. The book proposal will be submitted in October 2016 by the editor, Dr Sarah Olive, Lecturer at University of York (sarah.olive@york.ac.uk) and Visiting Lecturer at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. My first monograph, Shakespeare Valued, was published by Intellect in 2015. It disseminates my research on Shakespeare in UK education policy, pedagogy and popular culture from 1989-2009. My subsequent publications have focused on Shakespeare in popular culture. Exploring Shakespeare in higher education in East Asia is my current research programme, funded by the British Academy, British Council, and GB Sasakawa Foundation. I also chair the British Shakespeare Association’s Education committee and am the founding Editor of Teaching Shakespeare, which seeks to publish work by and for Shakespeare educators across sectors, across the globe. If you would like to know more about me, my CV and many of my previous publications are available at https://york.academia.edu/SarahOlive.

‘Asian Shakespeare’ – sometimes written in the plural to reflect the heterogeneity of offerings and experiences – is a rapidly growing area of Shakespeare scholarship at higher education institutions (HEIs) worldwide. Monographs, edited collections and themed journal issues on Shakespeare in and from Asia encompass translation, film adaptation and theatre productions but not higher education (HE). Rather, Asian HE is occasionally dealt with in Shakespeare studies about the region in individual chapters or articles or in smaller, cross-sector publications such as Teaching Shakespeare (issue 6, issue 7, issue 8, and issue 9 see also Huang, Trivedi and Minami). Furthermore, in relation to East/South East Asia, the emphasis historically has been on the sometime-colonial forces of China and Japan.

This book aims to redress the above imbalances in attention to Shakespeare in East/South East Asian HE. In particular, it attempts to move beyond the usual tightly bound focus on national Shakespeares to consider regional similarities and differences. It explores the intermediatory role that Anglophone nations, such as the UK and US, as well as countries where English is a foreign language, such as China and Japan, have played in the study of Shakespeare in Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam. In some of these countries scholars and students have met Shakespeare as part of East/South East Asian languages and cultures, ‘de-centered’ from English and England. Comparable phenomena are observable, and have been researched to a limited extent, in the German and French intermediation of Shakespeare in Hungary (Paraisz) and Brazil (O’Shea, Closel) respectively.

In addition to the editor and authors offering critical insight into Shakespeare in different countries and different HEIs across the region, other objectives for the book include stimulating the contributors’ reflections on and improvements to teaching Shakespeare in East/South East Asian HEIs, through the process of writing about their experiences and practices. The editor will draw on her own research in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Vietnam in introducing contributors’ work.

Key questions, which the book will explore, are:

• What practices of teaching and learning Shakespeare, formal and informal, exist in East Asian HEIs?
• How do these practices diverge within countries and from other East/South East Asian countries?
• Do HE lecturers and students in East/South East Asia explain educational practices around Shakespeare with reference to national culture and education? If so, how?

Questions explored by particular contributors may include, but are not limited to:

• How and why is Shakespeare taught drawing on resources from across the region: e.g. using East Asian visiting lecturers to teach HE students in the Philippines. With what effect?
• How and why is Shakespeare taught drawing on resources from outside the region: e.g. through MOOCs and other distance learning programmes with geographically diverse student bodies, through researcher, teacher and/or student mobility schemes. With what effect?
• What Shakespeare-related interactions between East/South East Asian schools and HEIs exist? How do lecturers and students manage the transition between Shakespeare at school and university?
• How does a country’s Ministry or Department of Education and wider government (their policy, funding, etc.) enable or inhibit the teaching of Shakespeare in HE? What role do other organisations, such as the British Council, other educational charities, sponsors, graduate employers etc. play?
• How does Shakespeare sit in popular culture and art forms in the region? With what implications for his teaching and/or study at HE level?

Please do contact me with initial ideas or questions at the address below. If you are interested in contributing a chapter (in the region of 5000-7000 words) to this edited collection, please send a 500-word abstract and biographical details of the author and any co-authors (max. 200 words per author) to sarah.olive@york.ac.uk by 1^st October 2016

Works cited:

Closel, Régis Augustus Bars. (2013). ‘Translating instability: The case of the Portuguese translation of the play of Sir Thomas More’. Apresentação de Trabalho/Comunicação.

Huang, A., & Ross, C.S. (2009a). Shakespeare in Hollywood, Asia, and cyberspace. West Lafayette, Ind: Purdue UP.

O’Shea, Jose Roberto. (2004). ‘From printed text to performance text: Brazilian translations of Shakespearean Drama’.  Translating Shakespeare for the Twenty-First Century. Ed. Rui Manuel G. de Carvalho Homem and A. J. Hoenselaars. Amsterdam and NY: Rodopi, 145-162.

Paraisz, Julia. (2012). ‘Translating Shakespeare’. Finding Shakespeare. Retrieved 26 February 2016, from http://findingshakespeare.co.uk/translating-shakespeare

Trivedi , P.& R. Minami. Eds. (2010). Re-playing Shakespeare in Asia. NY: Routledge.

BSA Bulletin for May 2016

3rd May 2016

Registration for Hull 2016

The BSA’s 2016 conference, ‘Shakespearean Transformations: Death, Life, and Afterlives’, takes place 8-11 September 2016 at the University of Hull. Registration for the conference will open next week. The early bird rate (before 1 July) is £180/£90 concession, and the conference dinner at The Deep aquarium will cost £40. All participants must be members of the BSA in good standing. 15 bursaries for postgraduate students will also be available, and details will be posted on the conference website shortly.

In addition to previously noted events, the organisers are delighted to announce an additional public lecture on 8 September by Professor Stuart Sillars on Shakespeare and visual art, as part of the Ferens Fine Art Lecture Series 2016. Please visit the conference website for full details.

 
Irish Renaissance Seminar supported by the BSA

As part of the Shakespeare celebrations in Northern Ireland and Ireland this year, Queen’s University Belfast will be hosting the Irish Renaissance Seminar on Saturday 7 May. The BSA are delighted to be able to support this event, which includes a round-table discussion of Terra Nova’s multi-cultural Belfast Tempest production taking place this April, in addition to a line-up of international speakers. Please contact Mark Thornton Burnett atmark.burnett@qub.ac.uk for further information.
Shakespeare 400 events sponsored by the BSA

The BSA was pleased to sponsor two events celebrating the 400^thanniversary of Shakespeare’s death: ‘Disability and Shakespearean Theatre’, a conference at the University of Glasgow on 20 April, and ‘Shakespeare 400: New Perspectives’, at the Chichester Festival Theatre on 23 April. Reports on both events will be posted shortly on the BSA website.
 

BSA Journal – new articles

New articles published online this month include Laurie Johnson’s review of Neema Parvini’s Shakespeare and Cognition and David McInnis’s discussionof a previously unrecorded promptbook for Samuel Phelps’ Antony and Cleopatra. Current members can subscribe to the journal – including the physical volume and full online access – at the heavily discounted price of £15. Contact Peter.Kirwan@nottingham.ac.uk for details and missing volumes.

 
BSA Event Videos

Our website hosts video recordings of BSA events. Members can currently watch the inauguration of Chris Grace and Dame Janet Suzman as honorary fellows of the association, complete with their reflections on their work with Shakespeare. A taster of the recording is available to all on the website, and members in good standing for the current year have been emailed a password for the full recording.
Teaching Shakespeare issue 9 available now

Issue 9 of the BSA magazine Teaching Shakespeare issue includes a bumper noticeboard and royally ushers in the year with two articles on the Henry IVplays by Michael J. Collins and Howard Gold. Submissions for Issue 10 can be sent to the journal editor at sarah.olive@york.ac.uk . Issue 9 can be downloaded from the BSA website.

Bardolph’s Box: An Introduction to Shakespeare

In March and April the BSA supported Up the Road Theatre’s Bardolph’s Box, a theatre production designed by BSA member Nicola Pollard for children aged 8-12 and their families. For more information, please see the company website. To read Nicola’s report from the road, please see the post on our website.

THE BSA MEMBERS’ BULLETIN

We are pleased to advertise news and activities by our members and other Shakespeare associations. If you would like to advertise a Shakespeare-related activity, please email Peter.Kirwan@nottingham.ac.uk. Items below are not affiliated with or endorsed by the BSA – please use individual contact details for more information.
Shakespeare400 activities in London 

Shakespeare400 events in May include Battling Shakespeare (May 4^th), which will discuss Shakespeare’s lasting influence on our perceptions of English kings; MultiLingual Shakespeare Mash-Up (May 8^th), a multi-lingual performance of extracts by The Swiss Stage Bards; and Playing The Curtain (May 13^th), looking at the long history of this early playhouse. For full details and to reserve tickets, please visit http://www.shakespeare400.org .

Exclusive offer on new Shakespeare artwork 

To commemorate 400 years since Shakespeare’s death, TAG Fine Arts has published a new limited-edition print by Adam Dant (official artist of the general election). ‘William Shakespeare’s Shordiche’ is his depiction of how the area might have looked 400 years ago, with its original road names, points of interest and a few characters one might have encountered there. To receive a 15% discount, simply type in the code HappyBirthdayWilliam at the checkout before 1 June.
 

Shakespeare:Birmingham King Lear workshop 

Shakespeare:Birmingham is running a day workshop on May 8^th on ‘Cordelia & the Fool; 2 sides of the same coin?’, which will focus on what links these roles, what makes them different, and how are they used by Shakespeare. Tickets cost £10. Shakespeare:Birmingham organises weekly gatherings / Shakespeare play readings at the Birmingham & Midland Institute in the centre of Birmingham (Tuesdays, 6.30-9.00pm). For details of meetings and workshops, please visit the website at http://shakespearebirmingham.co.uk.
Shakespeare in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle

As part of the Shakespeare 400 celebrations join Royal Librarian Oliver Urquhart Irvine on May 10^th for an exclusive insight into the rare and captivating treasures included in the exhibition at Windsor Castle. See how the relationship between the royal family and Shakespeare has developed over the past 400 years through these remarkable objects. The lecture is followed by wine and a private view of the exhibition. For booking and more information, see the website.
Metamorphosis at Senate House Library 

Senate House Library is commemorating the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death with a season of activities running from 14 April to 17 December, including a free exhibition, a programme of events and a website with digital content and research resources. Based loosely on the ‘seven ages of man’ speech from As You Like It, the season will reflect the changes in Shakespearean text and scholarship over four centuries. For full details, please visit the website.
OCR GCSE English Conference 2016

The GCSE English Conference 2016 will be held on 6 June at Shakespeare’s Globe. All teachers working with GCSE-level students are invited to attend a day of practical workshops, discussions and networking opportunities, including a keynote conversation with Kazuo Ishiguro. For more information, please visit the conference website.
The Merchant of Venice in Venice, 27-28 July 

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust is organising a fundraising event in Venice to support its re-presentation of New Place. You are invited to attend a production of The Merchant of Venice in the Jewish ghetto (500 years old this year). Tickets (priced at £450) also include talks from Shakespeare experts and theatre practitioners, a three-course lunch at Locanda Cipriani, coffee and a drinks reception. For more information, or to reserve a place, please contact clare.sawdon@shakespeare.org.uk
Call for Papers:  ‘Shakespeare and his contemporaries’ Conference in Brazil

The ‘VI Jornada de Estudos Shakespeareanos: Shakespeare e seus contemporâneos’ will be held at Universidade de São Paulo (USP, São Paulo, 10-11 November 2016). Abstracts in English, Spanish or Portuguese are due 30 June 2016. For more information, please contactjornadashakespeare@gmail.com or jornadashakespeare.blogspot.com.
Shakespeare Documented online exhibition

Shakespeare Documented is a multi-institutional collaboration convened by the Folger Shakespeare Library to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. This free online exhibition constitutes the largest and most authoritative collection of primary-source materials documenting the life of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). It brings together images and descriptions of all known manuscript and print references to Shakespeare, his works, and additional references to his family, in his lifetime and shortly thereafter.

BBC Shakespeare Archive now available to UK schools 

The BBC has recently launched the BBC Shakespeare Archive Resource. This new online resource provides schools, colleges and universities across the UK with access to hundreds of BBC television and radio broadcasts of Shakespeare’s plays, sonnets and documentaries about Shakespeare. The material includes the first British televised adaptations of Othello and Henry V, classic interviews with key Shakespearean actors including John Gielgud, Judi Dench and Laurence Olivier, and more than 1000 photographs of Shakespeare productions.

Irish Renaissance Seminar

26th April 2016

The BSA is proud to sponsor the following seminar. Attendance is free for all.

This event is part of a larger series, more details here: http://www.britishshakespeare.ws/shakespeare-lives-across-the-island/

Shakespeare Lives across the Island: Conversations and Celebrations

7^th May 2016, Old Staff Common Room, QUB

12pm                                     Lunch (courtesy of School of English)

1pm – 2pm                         Plenary One                                       Chair: Ramona Wray (QUB)

Prof. Sheila T. Cavanagh (Emory University and Fulbright/Global Shakespeare Centre Distinguished Chair), ‘The Curiosity of Nations: Communities of Shakespeare in the Twenty-first Century’

2pm – 3:15pm                   Paper Session                                   Chair: Edel Lamb (QUB)

Shakespeare on Film and in Performance

Emer McHugh (NUI Galway), ‘Irish Shakespeare on the Margins and in the Mainstream: The Case of Druid Shakespeare’

Dr Edel Semple (UC Cork), ‘Men, Women and the Nation in Justin Kurzel’s Macbeth’

3:15 – 3:30pm                    Coffee

3:30 – 4:30pm                    Plenary Two                                       Chair: Romano Mullin (QUB)

Dr Stephen O’Neill (Maynooth University), ‘“It is the digital, / The digital above us, govern our conditions”: Shakespeare, (Mis)Quotation and Digital Cultures’

4:30 – 5:15pm                    Roundtable: Belfast Tempest     Chair: Mark Burnett (QUB)

Belfast Tempest is a stunning adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest staged in the giant industrial cathedral that is T13. It combines 3D holographic sound, actors, dancers, a choir of Belfast voices and community groups from across the city. The roundtable features Andrea Montgomery, Director (Terra Nova), and cast member Ilana Gilovich (QUB)

5:30pm                                 Reception and Launch of the British Council/QUB Exhibition, ‘Shakespeare Lives through Kenneth Branagh on Stage and Screen’, Queen’s Film Theatre

7pm                                       Dinner at French Village, Botanic Avenue (self-funding, but School of English to provide drinks to accompany dinner)

Shakespeare Lives Across the Island

19th April 2016

Members of the BSA may be interested by the following series of events, one of which is being sponsored by the association:

IRISH RENAISSANCE SEMINAR
7 May, 12 noon– 5pm
Old Staff Common Room,
Queen’s University Belfast

FREE

Speakers:

Andrea Montgomery (Terra Nova)

Prof. Sheila Cavanagh (Emory University)

Emer McHugh (NUI Galway)

Dr Stephen O’Neill (Maynooth University)

Dr Edel Semple (UC Cork)

Shakespeare Lives across the Island: Conversations and Celebrations is an unprecedented programme of events celebrating William Shakespeare’s work on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of his death in 2016.

The initiative brings together an extensive series of outreach activities across the island of Ireland which, marking this unique anniversary, explores Shakespeare as a living writer who still speaks for all people and nations. With a basis in the activities of higher education institutions, the programme also extends to conversations and celebrations taking place in academies, theatres, performance spaces, cinemas, libraries and museums.

We invite you to join in the festivities by experiencing the work of Shakespeare directly in higher education institutions, on stage, via exhibitions, on film and online.
Events are organized by local partners, but the whole project is co–ordinated by Professor Mark Thornton Burnett (Queen’s University Belfast) in partnership with the British Council Ireland and other organizations and individuals across Northern Ireland and Ireland.
A travelling exhibition Shakespeare Lives through Sir Kenneth Branagh on Stage and Screen will accompany the programme.

Leaflet

Website

Shakespeare400 Day: New Perspectives

18th April 2016

The BSA is delighted to be supporting the Shakespeare400 day, to be held in collaboration with The University of Chichester English Department at Chichester Festival theatre on Saturday 23 April 2016.

The event is a day of Shakespeare talks open to both scholars and the general public. Under the title ‘New Perspectives’, this event aims to offer presentations by specialists opening up Shakespeare from a variety of approaches – critical, historical, performance-based, and creative.

For more information and to buy tickets, go to https://www.cft.org.uk/whats-on/event/shakespeare-400-day