£10 Amazon voucher offered in return for your participation in a study of Teaching Shakespeare’s impact

22nd June 2017

We are currently carrying out an evaluation of the impact of Teaching Shakespeare, the British Shakespeare Association magazine, which aims to provide support for Shakespeare educators across sectors. This evaluation is being carried out by the editor and founder of the magazine Dr Sarah Olive and research assistant at the University of York, Dr Chelsea Swift. The British Shakespeare Association are also a named project partner. The aim of this evaluation is to evidence the impact of the magazine on its non-academic readership (and those who hold roles in other sectors as well as academia). This is with a view to gaining a better understanding of how it is read and used by practitioners, and how its relevance to educators and usefulness for practitioners might be strengthened. We are interested in how and why you read the magazine and whether and how the magazine has influenced or changed your thinking about, attitudes towards and practices when teaching Shakespeare.

As a ‘thank you’ for participating in a short telephone or Skype interview with a researcher, each interviewee will receive a £10 Amazon voucher. If you are willing and able to participate, would like further information or have any further questions, please contact Dr Chelsea Swift (c.swift1@lancaster.ac.uk) by July 24th, giving your name and the address to which you would like your Amazon voucher posted. We will ensure you receive it ASAP.

Your participation would be much appreciated, we look forward to hearing from you soon.

Dr Sarah Olive and Dr Chelsea Swift

Reports from the Offensive Shakespeare Conference

12th June 2017

The BSA is proud to have sponsored the Offensive Shakespeare Conference at Northumbria University on 23rd and 24th May 2017. The following reports were written by those who received BSA bursaries for the event:

• John Rowell
• Shauna O’Brien

Conference speakers and organizers.

John Rowell, The Value of a Bad Joke: Offensive Shakespeare as an In-Road to Critical Thinking in the Classroom

On May 23^rd of this year, Fred Ribkoff and I delivered a paper for the BSA’s “Offensive Shakespeare” conference. The paper, entitled “The Merchant of Venice and the Metatheatrical Machine of Offence,” combines film with live performance to suggest a version of the controversial play which embraces stereotyping. As we articulate in the paper,

[o]n a post-Holocaust stage, The Merchant of Venice should be a parade of comic stereotypes functioning as a metatheatrical machine of offence in which Antonio, Shylock and everyone in between are but cogs exposing the absurdity of believing a stereotype to be true. (1)

The statement is a tough sell, to say the least. Our aim is not to ‘solve’ the issues of race within the text, but rather to suggest that unduly sympathetic post-Holocaust Shylocks are not the only way in which to engage an audience’s “progressive cultural consciousness” (9), and for twenty minutes, we placed comic renditions of Shylock, Antonio, Salarino and Solanio under a microscope.

Both Fred and I had an excellent time. A room full of academics discussing Shakespearean offensiveness for two days might not be everyone’s idea of a good time, but it certainly is ours, and for everyone in that room at Northumbria University, it proved to be an ideal forum in which to explore what it means to give, take, or be reduced to side-splitting laughter by offence.

On a more personal note, what I found to be particularly interesting was the avenue my thoughts took on the trip back to Vancouver. How would I teach Shakespeare in light of what I learned at the conference? How would I teach the offensive? The sleepless, dehydrated, more-airplane-scotch-than-was-likely-necessary conclusion to which I came was this: The teaching of offensive Shakespeare could very well be an excellent in-road for the instruction of critical thinking.

After a decent night’s sleep and enough water to disturb a coastal village, I revisited the idea and found that it remained a compelling line of enquiry. The study of offence in an academic context cannot simply be to question what is or is not offensive. The beauty of offence may in fact be that there is no such thing as objectively offensive material—one person’s joke is another’s microaggression. So, to approach offense in the classroom is to promote critical thought by asking not what is or is not offensive, but to interrogate how and why material can be offensive in a particular context, era, forum, to a particular group of people and so on. Perhaps offensive material is useful for this very reason. We can urge our students to follow their sensibilities down the rabbit hole of truly analytical thought as they question rather than state the nature of their offence (or its absence). Studying offensive Shakespeare in the classroom begins with thinking about what offends us, but the conversation cannot end there. I am confident that my students will engage critically with offensive material as they dig down into how and why a particular play, passage or character inspires offence, and explore, like we did at the conference, how offence really works. The question is one without a finite solution, and is that not the perfect jumping-off point for critical in-class discussion?

This conference has changed the way in which I will teach offence in Shakespeare. This conference has changed the way I will teach offence, full-stop.

My sincerest thanks to Monika Smialkowska and Edmund King for organizing the event, and to my fellow presenters. It was an absolute pleasure to offend with you all.

Shauna O’Brien

The ‘Offensive Shakespeare conference’, organised by Monika Smialkowska and Edmund King, took place on the 23^rd and 24^th of May at Northumbria University, Newcastle. Over two days, a diverse cohort of speakers traversed the spectrum of Shakespearean offence, presenting papers that addressed controversies arising from teaching, performing and critiquing Shakespeare’s plays. Offence was examined in various media and against different political backdrops, with speakers interrogating problematic representations of Shakespeare’s plays in graphic novels and video-games and Shakespeare’s appearances and disappearances in the repertoires of dictatorships.

The first day concluded with Prof. Douglas Lanier’s thought-provoking discussion of two film adaptations of Shakespeare, both deploying offence as a strategy to radically different effect – Shakespeare must die, a Thai film adaptation of Macbeth banned by the country’s state censors and the affront to ‘good taste’, Bikini Bloodbath Shakespeare. Viewing these two films side by side revealed a feature shared by many of the ‘offensive Shakespeares’ discussed at this conference – their propensity to disrupt (or at least threaten to disrupt) the hierarchies of various political, cultural and social structures. In fact, Shakespeare’s popular status as a vehicle for ‘universal’ values seems to proffer him as a particularly effective tool in the pursuit of this disruption.

However, Shakespeare’s works need not always be wielded with intent to be perceived as offensive. Several speakers recounted their experiences teaching some of Shakespeare’s more problematic plays to students. The Merchant of Venice and The Taming of the Shrew were unsurprisingly repeat offenders. However, while some students deemed these plays too offensive to be worthy of study, others expressed few misgivings about the content of these comedies whatsoever. Indeed, the absence of offence triggered as much debate as its presence at this conference. Dr Peter Kirwan’s fascinating paper on the second day interrogated the silence of critics and audiences alike to contentious adaptations made to Cheek by Jowl’s post-Brexit performances of The Winter’s Tale. As Kirwan’s paper demonstrated, the expression of offence can be an important act in re-asserting shared values and establishing a consensus of what is and is not acceptable. Several speakers also drew attention to the geographic and temporal conditions that often define the parameters of offence and the occasionally punitive consequences for those who provoke this offence – from no platforming and censorship to imprisonment.

At the end of this stimulating two-day conference, it seemed to me that Shakespeare’s plays are perhaps at their most offensive when they are presented in ways that threaten to undermine the aesthetic, moral or intellectual values that audiences and critics have variously invested in them. In these cases, perhaps the best defence is a good offence. Being offended can illuminate the personal lens through which we are liable to view Shakespeare’s plays and therefore, prompt us to reassess our mode of engagement with these plays. These two days of lively and entertaining debate convinced me that confronting and critiquing offence in Shakespeare’s plays performs an important exercise in testing the integrity of the critical frameworks upon which we base our judgements of these works. Monika Smialkowska’s closing remarks were an apt coda to the conference: “If we shadows have offended, good! This is what we intended.”

BSA Bulletin for June 2017

7th June 2017

THE BSA BULLETIN – JUNE 2017

BSA election of new Trustees

As several Trustees are now approaching the end of their terms of service, the Board of Trustees of the British Shakespeare Association wishes to appoint new Trustees to take up positions on the Board in September 2017. The position of Trustee is voluntary (with reasonable expenses covered) so we are looking for members of the BSA who are willing to give of their time to further the aims of the BSA across its four main constituencies of members: academic researchers, teachers, theatre practitioners and members of the public. Nominations (including self-nominations) should be made by 7^th July and elections by the membership will be held electronically for 6 weeks (18^th August) so that new Trustees can be introduced at the Board meeting on 16^th September. Full details can be found here: http ://www . britishshakespeare . ws/bsa-news/election-of-new-trustees/

Call For Participants: ‘Shared Futures’, English Association and University English Conference, Newcastle 5-7 July 2017

There is still time to participate in our panels at the Shared Futures conference. Choose from ‘Why Shakespeare now?’ (Chair Susan Anderson); Panel 2 ‘Sharing Shakespeare’s Language (workshop chaired by Alison Findlay, Andrew Jarvis and James Harrison-Smith) and Panel 3: Sharing Futures across primary, secondary and university education (Chairs: Chris Green and Karen Eckersall). Further details can be found on the BSA website. More information on: http ://www . britishshakespeare . ws/join-our-panels-at-the-shared-futures-conference/ If you would like to participate but do not have access to financial support (e.g. from a university or school) the BSA might be able to help. Contact us to find out how to apply for a BSA Bursary. http ://www . englishsharedfutures . uk/

Nominations open for our Honorary Fellowships for 2018

This year, 2017, the BSA Honorary Fellowships are to be given to Sarah Stanton—formerly Publisher of Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature Studies at Cambridge University Press—and to the actor Adrian Lester. The BSA’s Fellowship Committee would like to invite all current Members of the BSA to offer nominations for next year’s award. The choice for nomination should fulfil the following criterion: ‘The title of ‘Honorary Fellow of the British Shakespeare Association’ should be reserved for those who, at whatever level, have made, or are making, over a significant period of time, a major contribution to the field of Shakespeare activities, whether it be in Scholarship, Education more generally, or in the Performance of the plays.’ All nominations, from whichever area or constituency, require the names of two nominators (a Proposer and a Seconder) and a formal written proposal, stating the case for nomination. This text should be at least 250 words in length. The closing date for nominations is 1^st September 2017. Full information on how to submit nominations are available here: http ://www . britishshakespeare . ws/bsa-news/nominations-open-for-our-2018-fellowships/

Annual conferences for 2018, 2019, and 2020

The institutions that will host our three upcoming annual conferences and their titles are as follows. The BSA Annual Conference of 2018 will take place at Queen’s University Belfast on 14-17 June under the title Shakespeare Studies Today. Swansea University will host the conference in 2019 with the title Shakespeare: Race and Nation, while in 2020 it will take place at the University of Surrey and the theme will be Shakespeare in Action. We would like to thank all three institutions for the hard work they have invested in their applications, and we look forward to visiting Belfast, Swansea, and Surrey in due course. The Belfast and Swansea BSA conferences will be the first to take place in Northern Ireland and in Wales, respectively, which is enormously exciting, as the BSA would have visited all four constituent nations of the United Kingdom by the end of 2019.

Interview with Professor Peter Hulme

The BSA website features an interview in which Peter Hulme (Emeritus Professor of English (University of Essex) discusses his work as editor of The Tempest and writer on world literature and postcolonial theory with John Drakakis (Emeritus Professor of English, University of Stirling). It is available here: http ://www . britishshakespeare . ws/bsa-news/peter-hulme-in-conversation-with-john-drakakis/

New Editors for the Education Network Blog

As of February 2017, following on from the excellent work of Dr Sarah Olive, our Education Network blog will be jointly edited by the BSA’s two Teaching Trustees: Chris Green and Karen Eckersall. Chris and Karen will welcome any contributions to the education network blog. You can contact them with articles, ideas or questions at the following email addresses: Chris Green – Karen Eckersall – More information on:

Teachers’ Conference: Shakespeare and Creativity, The Shakespeare Centre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 3-5 August 2017 POSTPONED

Please note that the first Teachers’ Conference organised by the BSA and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust has now been postponed until further notice. We will keep members informed of future updates.

Teaching Shakespeare 12 is out!

We are pleased to announce that the twelfth issue of Teaching Shakespeare and the first ever summer issue of the magazine, with articles on Shakespeare in Hanoi, on Shakespeare and autistic students, on young offenders and Othello, and on digitized promptbooks, is now available for free download. You can download your free copy here: http ://www . britishshakespeare . ws/bsa-news/teaching-shakespeare-12-is-out/

TNT’s Twelfth Night at Japan Women’s University

On Thursday 11 May, Japan Women’s University (JWU) hosted a performance of TNT Theatre Britain’s or International Theatre Company London’s current, world-touring production Twelfth Night in its Oufu Kaikan (hall). TNT performed a cut-down version of the play, with a handful of actors. Their set for touring, loosely early modern costumes and props fitted into a few suitcases. The company played multiple instruments and sang, with no pre-recorded music used. Read more here: http ://www . britishshakespeare . ws/shakespeare-in-education/tnts-twelfth-night-at-japan-womens-university/

Lost in Pronunciation: Ben Crystal’s Japanese tour

During the second week of May, Ben Crystal gave a series of talks at three Japanese universities on the performance of Shakespeare using original early modern pronunciation. You can read more here: http ://www . britishshakespeare . ws/shakespeare-in-education/lost-in-pronunciation-ben-crystal-at-waseda-university/

BSA funding available for conference, events, and other activities

The BSA is able to award small amounts of money to Shakespeare-related education events, academic conferences and other activities taking place in the UK. For more information or to apply for funding, please email the Chair of the Events Committee, Susan Anderson (Susan.Anderson@shu.ac.uk ) or the Chair of the Education Committee, Sarah Olive (sarah.olive@york.ac.uk).

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 our Membership Officer, José A. Pérez Díez, at membership@britishshakespeare.ws. Items below are not affiliated with or endorsed by the BSA – please use individual contact details for more information.

The Story of the Shakespeare Club of Stratford-upon-Avon 1824-2016, Susan Brock and Sylvia Morris, available now.

In their new book, The Story of the Shakespeare Club of Stratford-upon-Avon 1824-2016, Susan Brock and Sylvia Morris answer the question “How did it come about that a small market town in the centre of England became the focus of the worldwide worship of Shakespeare?”  After all, London’s claims were much stronger being the place where he became famous and spent the most productive years of his life. The story of the part played by the Shakespeare Club of Stratford-upon-Avon, set up nearly 200 years ago by ordinary townsfolk and still in existence today, is told in this alternative history of the town. The Club was responsible for organising the first local festivities for Shakespeare’s Birthday on 23 April in 1827, 1830 and 1833. It played an important part in saving Shakespeare’ s Birthplace and setting up the Birthplace Trust. It worked towards the preservation of the Shakespeare monuments and the graves in Holy Trinity Church and it played a huge part in setting up the theatres in Stratford so that Shakespeare’s plays have a permanent home for their performance outside London. The fully-illustrated book is based on documentary evidence provided by the rich archives of the Club dating back to its foundation in 1824 and the archives of Stratford-upon-Avon which are preserved in the collections of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. Published by the Shakespeare Club of Stratford-upon-Avon, copies (£12.99) are available direct from www . stratfordshakespeareclub . org or write to stratfordshakespeareclub@gmail.com.

Shakespeare, Media, Performance and Technology Conference, University of Exeter, 24^th June 2017

Shakespeare Bulletin is delighted to welcome scholars from around the world to examine the recent significant changes in how Shakespeare’s plays are performed and disseminated through old and new technologies and media. Marking the end of Pascale Aebischer’s term as General Editor of Shakespeare Bulletin, this one-day event responds to the technological turn in performance studies evident in a significant part of the work submitted to the journal between 2012 and 2017 and aims to bring together a range of scholarly approaches to the technologies of performance that shape the production of Shakespeare and his contemporaries today. Registration for the event, including refreshments and lunch, is free, sponsored by Shakespeare Bulletin. Places are strictly limited to 35 delegates, so we recommend an early registration to avoid disappointment. Registration closes on 31st May. You can register here: https://www . eventbrite . co . uk/e/shakespeare-media-performance-and-technology-conference-tickets-34394466776

King Lear (alone), one-man play with inamoment theatre.

After its highly acclaimed full outing last year, inamoment theatre’s one-man play King Lear (alone) is touring again in 2017, visiting festivals and theatre venues up and down the country. Using mostly Shakespeare’s words, and set in a modern day care home, it’s an astonishing tour de force by Bob Young, retelling the events that led to Lear’s tragedy. “I left the theatre feeling like I’d been exposed to a flawed individual at their most honest . . . ” “King Lear (Alone) is a gripping production and the formidable performance given by Bob Young makes it compelling viewing.”  “Bob Young in the title role, is a powerful performer. His tormented character takes shape thanks to his profound voice, whilst his presence on stage appears carefully studied….. In Bob Young’s poignant (portrayal), the play is quite intense.” The play has been designed for performance in Schools, Theatres, Conferences, Halls etc. (we also offer a separate King Lear workshop), all details can be found at www . kinglearalone . uk. Please contact Frank Bramwell at inamomenttheatre@gmail.com to make booking enquiries.

Election of New Trustees

6th June 2017

As several Trustees are now approaching the end of their terms of service, the Board of Trustees of the British Shakespeare Association wishes to appoint new Trustees to take up positions on the Board in September 2017. The position of Trustee is voluntary (with reasonable expenses covered) so we are looking for members of the BSA who are willing to give of their time to further the aims of the BSA across its four main constituencies of members: academic researchers, teachers, theatre practitioners and members of the public. Nominations (including self-nominations) should be made by 7 July and elections by the membership will be held electronically for 6 weeks (18^th August) so that new Trustees can be introduced at the Board meeting on 16 September)

The British Shakespeare Association is a registered Charity and its Trustees take joint responsibility to help the Board promote the Association’s objectives which are: to educate, promote, and foster a better understanding of Shakespeare and his works in a manner consistent with an educational charity limited by guarantee; and benefiting those individuals, members, charities, or institutions with an educational purpose toward the study of Shakespeare in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

In line with these objectives, and with its policy for diversity and equal opportunities, the Board warmly welcomes applications from any member of the Association, and from across all parts of the United Kingdom so that different constituencies are represented.

Trustees are required to attend three meetings of the Board of Trustees per year, which are normally held on a Saturday afternoon in Stratford-on-Avon in January, May, September, and to attend the Association’s AGM. The BSA will meet all reasonable expenses associated with attending meetings.

In addition, some of our Trustees also sit on sub-Committees of the Board (whose business is usually conducted virtually).

The BSA is a charitable company limited by guarantee and all Trustees share a responsibility as Directors to ensure that the BSA is managed well.

Trustees are elected by the membership for three years and may stand for re-election for a second term.

• For more information on the roles and responsibilities of a Trustee, please read the documents published by the Charity Commission.
• To make sure you are eligible to become a Trustee, please check the criteria on the Charity Commission website.

What are the benefits of joining the BSA Board?

• opportunities for networking, mentoring and collaboration with scholars, practitioners and education professionals in Shakespeare studies.
• professional development through contributing to a non-profit charitable organisation.
• a wider perspective on Shakespeare and advance knowledge of Shakespeare-related events and research.
• the opportunity to steer the organisation to better meet the needs of practitioners in theatre, radio, tv, film, education, and academia, and to engage members of the public with the work of Shakespeare.

In these elections the Board is particularly keen to recruit new Trustees with interests and or expertise in the following areas:

Theatre and Performance

The Board is setting up a Performance and Media Sub-Committee (chaired by Dr Paul Prescott) to better represent the interests of the theatrical community within the BSA. We seek to appoint a new Trustee who will, in addition to attending Board Meetings as outlined above,

• sit on the Board’s Performance and Media Sub-Committee (which normally converses virtually via email).
• inform the Board of the current interests and matters of concern amongst theatre practitioners of all types (performers, designers, directors, company managers) and TV), from individuals to larger-scale companies, and across media (live performance, touring, radio, tv and film).
• help in the planning of BSA events to meet the needs and interests of these groups
• help to develop strategies to engage theatre practitioners in BSA events

We wish to appoint someone with

• a keen interest in developing enthusiasm for performing Shakespeare’s work in a range of media (essential)
• direct experience of working in theatre, performance or media in some form (essential)
• an awareness of the different kinds of practice facing individuals, small-scale companies and larger companies or institutions (desirable)
• knowledge of Arts funding bodies and policies (desirable)

Website management

The Board wishes to appoint a Trustee with an interest website management to work alongside our Web and Communications Officer, James Harriman Smith. The new Trustee will

• help to manage the BSA website, updating it with BSA news and ensuring that BSA related events are given a high profile on the website. As our Web Officer, James will provide training on this and on other forms of communications with BSA members and partner organisations.
• contribute to the Website and Communications Officer’s report to the Board, which is a standing item at Board Meeting agendas.
• In coordination with the Web and Communications Officer and members of the Sub-Committees, make recommendations to the Board for the improvement and development of the website and communications, and the costs associated with these.

Minuting Secretary

The Board seeks to appoint one of its new Trustees with the designated task of taking minutes at each of the 3 Board meetings.  So far, this role has rotated amongst members of the Board and does not require specialist skills such as shorthand. At the Board Meetings the Minuting Secretary will

• record any apologies
• make a brief summary of reports by Officers (who may provide electronic versions that can be pasted into the minutes after the meeting),
• make a brief record of discussions on each point of the agenda, decisions taken, and action points for individuals
• Send a copy of the draft minutes to the Chair for editing

Skills required: word processing

How to Apply

If you wish to nominate yourself to become a Trustee please submit a 300 word (max) statement that outlines your interest in the role and your professional experience / affiliation by email to the BSA’s Chair, Alison Findlay (a.g.findlay@lancaster.ac.uk), by the 7^th July 2017.

Do contact Alison should you require any further information.

Everyone’s a critic: a short course for graduate students at the University of York

1st June 2017

By Sarah Olive

Last week, I finished running a free short course I’d devised for graduate students at the University of York, regardless of discipline, for fun rather than credit. In the event, seven students came from programmes as wide-ranging as the MA in Renaissance Literature, the MSc in Bioarchaeology and a PhD in Plasma Physics. The promotional text I wrote for the course suggested:

You might have an existing love of the arts and arts journalism, or want to develop your knowledge of these fields (particularly the British theatre scene, with a focus on Britain’s national playwright, William Shakespeare), or want to enhance your employability through learning a professional writing skill and gaining a publication to put on your CV. There will be expert guest speakers, a free theatre ticket, popcorn and drinks along the way.

The course was funded by the Graduate Students Association after a competitive funding process open to staff and students at the university. It was co-run with Julia Erdosy, a PhD student from the English department. Its premise was that students would learn to write and publish theatre reviews, with all students welcome: no previous experience required. Reviewing was Shakespeare performance was the focus, in keeping with our research specialisms. However, we stressed the applicability of reviewing methods and some resources to non-Shakespearean productions, and sometimes drew on discussion of such shows.

Underpinning the course was research I’ve engaged with as an academic which suggests that educators in the UK, Japan, Korea and Vietnam perceive some involvement with theatre to benefit students’ critical abilities, ability to take informed and responsible action, social and moral responsibility, community involvement, awareness of complex topics such as identity and diversity, and facility with English (given the plays and sessions in this research were English language ones). I’ve written about these in editorials for previous issues of teaching Shakespeare, but other fascinating projects and their resultant writings are available such as Tawell, Thompson, Daniels, Elliott, and Dingwall’s 2015 report on ‘Being Other: The Effectiveness of Arts Based Approaches in Engaging with Disaffected Young People’. (Oxford University Department of Education).

In developing the course, I sought a theatre activity that would be accessible to those without drama backgrounds, with less confidence performing or speaking in front of others, but with experience in analysing and writing, that would appeal to students wanting to master a new skill for their CVs, that could be valued internationally (unfortunately, not always the case with drama). My choice of reviewing was driven by past experiences and some assumptions, rather than informed by sustained reading about reviewing and informal education. I’ve tried running series of playreadings and screenings in the past, with colleagues from related departments. However, I /we struggled with attendance and multidisciplinary appeal. This isn’t to say I wouldn’t try them again. Rather, I felt like trying something new for comparison. I also wanted to take advantage of the drama expertise on our doorstep: the biennial York International Shakespeare Festival.

The course ran over four weeks, with the following activities scheduled:

4 May – Welcome to Everyone’s a Critic! ‘How to write a theatre review’ expert panel

What is the purpose of theatre reviewing? What makes a great review? How do you get published as a theatre critic? These questions – and more of your own – will be answered by our expert panel featuring Sara Marie Westh (Misfit Fellow at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Assistant Editor at ReviewingShakespeare.com) and York’s very own reviewer, director and GSA Vice President.

11 May – Introduction, screening of the Globe’s a Midsummer Night’s Dream, & Q&A

Chomp some popcorn while watching this riotous, Bollywood version of Shakespeare’s most famous comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Emma Rice (whose departure from the Globe earlier this year made newspaper headlines), performed and broadcast by the BBC as part of the Shakespeare 400th anniversary celebrations in 2016.  The screening will be followed by a 15-minute Q&A. Put last week’s expert advice into practice as you try your hand at writing a review over the week.

(N.b. We did hit a slight glitch here. The BBC had made the broadcast of this production available throughout 2016. I checked it was still available in March. Around Shakespeare’s birthday celebrations in 2017, and a year after it had been posted, the programme was taken down. Julia lit on the idea of screening an instalment from the BBC Hollow Crown instead. This serendipitously meant that we diversified away from Shakespeare’s comedies to include an English history, although we lost the engagement with Asian Shakespeare and intercultural adaptation that Rice’s production had promised.

18 May – Watermill’s Twelfth Night at York Theatre Royal

Meet at the York Theatre Royal at 7.15pm latest to collect your free ticket to this hot production by an acclaimed UK company as part of the York International Shakespeare Festival. Then rattle off a review over the coming week for publication in a British Shakespeare Association blog post. A chance to get your first publication!

25 May – Critics’ Circle: sharing your experiences of Twelfth Night 

Meet up for casual conversation based on last week’s production and your efforts to put the experience into writing. A chance to find out just how many different views can exists on the same show!

Three of the students agreed to the publication of their Twelfth Night reviews here –  my thanks are due to them firstly for their participation and secondly for their generosity in sharing their work. The reviews offer an intimate insight into the range of reviewing styles, focal points, experiences with Shakespeare, and diversity of thoughts on the same production that the students ably demonstrated. What the reviews can’t capture is the students’ considerable ability to support and encourage each other in practising their reviewing skills while being unafraid, as panellist Sara Marie Westh put it, to ask visiting experts the really hard questions such as ‘what is a good review’?

Twelfth Night, Watermill, dir. Paul Hart, York Theatre Royal. 19 May 2017.

Chen Geng

 Thank you very much for the opportunity. This is not a serious review, because I myself neither is a literature-based student nor a Shakespeare acquaintance. This was the first time I actually watched a real commercial Shakespeare play. When I was young, I once read a simplified (and also translated) script from the play The Merchant of Venice and watched the film Hamlet, and that might be my only knowledge on Shakespeare. Before watching the play, I searched the background of the traditional version on Wikipedia. And to my surprise, the Watermill Theatre adapted the show in such a modern jazz performing. And this gave me quite a lot inspiration.

I personally prefer a lot this adaption. I once heard some discussion why the young do not fancy traditional literatures. I think the performance form might also be one of the reasons. I personally like relaxing and popular entertainment more than serious and rigid show even if the topic is serious. And for the comedy Twelfth Night, I think Watermill Theatre did a very great work at this point.

Another highlight was that there was no interlude. I watched some other musicals before such as Harry Potter and they’ve got a lot of interludes to change the setting of stage. However, on Watermill’s Twelfth Night, the stage properties are used at the highest efficiency and are changed very clever. I am not sure about the original performance, but I praise the Watermill’s stage setting, as music is flowing, the stage must be better without interruption.

Above all, I think this musical Twelfth Night is highly recommended.

Michele Learmouth

Watermill Theatre company has brought to the stage a Twelfth Night that places music, the very food of love, firmly at its core. If the text is sometimes sacrificed for the musical numbers, when they are performed as well as these, both vocally and instrumentally, this can be forgiven. The very young, very talented cast brings a lively exuberance to all aspects of their performance. The comedy is superbly played. Lauryn Redding, as Sir Toby Belch, is a veritable scene-stealer: a real master of comic timing and expression. The physical comedy is quite outstanding. The garden scene is a riot of laughs with a double bass standing in for the box tree to great effect (its case having earlier served as a tomb). This is of course a play which features cruelty and injustice amidst the laughter. Malvolio, so well played by Peter Dukes, moves through the gamut of different moods. The wearing of the yellow stockings and cross garters is taken to a whole other level here, much to the delight of the audience!

The chemistry between Orsino (Jamie Satterthwaite) and the disguised Viola (Rebecca Lee) could perhaps have been given more time to develop but this is a small quibble, this is a wonderful rendition of one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays.

This set on two levels is very versatile with scene changes being marked by the use of revolving doors, and its scaffolding serving as a ship’s mast and for stairs. It is all the more impressive for this being a touring production. The lighting design allows the very successful use of light and shade, particularly effective in the prison scene.

The play opens in the Elephant Jazz Club, with the players trying to entice members of the audience onto the stage. Typical British reticence held most people back. Had these entreaties been repeated at the end, I think the whole audience would have been up on stage so well was this performance received. This is a company that need not be afraid of greatness, they have already achieved it with this production.

Elliot Beck

The Watermill Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night spares no time at all in engaging the audience with its lively interpretation of Shakespeare’s play. There is perhaps hardly a silent or dull moment throughout the performance, in which the stage is designed as a smoky jazz club, an atmosphere maintained and made effective throughout.

Besides the occasional abundance of musical theatre school-smiles, the music and song aspects of the production were handled tastefully, and never did the digressions feel excessive. The use of song choice in reflecting characters motives and feelings in the scene was very well done and a creative addition, excusing any questions as to why non-jazz songs were reinterpreted into the 1920’s setting, because, frankly, having Malvolio sing Lorde’s ‘Royals’ works so well.

Viola [Rebecca Lee] was portrayed as quasi-articulate, accidently charming the fantastically portrayed Olivia [Aruhan Galiev] making their storylines very endearing, comfortably standing-up against the comic hijinks of the play’s subplot.

Unfortunately, the Watermill Theatre production of Twelfth Night failed to capitalise on the complexities of the final scene. One of the most significant aspects of Shakespeare’s comedies is that they leave a slight imbalance, an often dark and intangible question at the end, one that is left open for interpretation by productions. Why is Isabella silent after the Duke’s proposal in Measure for Measure? Is Caliban to be freed from Prospero’s servitude in The Tempest? In the case of Twelfth Night, the audience are left to consider how humourous has Malvolio’s ‘abuse’ really been? What do we think of the characters that tricked him and of ourselves for gleefully accompanying them? In this case, it suffered from a lack of emotional cohesion. Malvolio [Peter Dukes] had tread carefully between sympathetic and pathetic throughout the performance, building up to his deeply impassioned final speech, delivered with a heavy emotional charge. However, this was met by a muted response from his peers, leaving the whole scene confused and ineffective.  This was immediately followed by the play’s final song, again disrupting the potential for an emotional focus towards Malvolio’s ‘abuse’. It seems the director, Paul Hart, wanted both a jubilant ending, and one that makes us consider Malvolio’s plight, but regrettably, this did not mix well. Nevertheless, Watermill Theatre’s Twelfth Night is a boisterous, fun, and smart performance – very Shakespearean.

Teaching Shakespeare 12 is out!

22nd May 2017

We are pleased to announce that the twelfth issue of Teaching Shakespeare and the first ever summer issue of the magazine, with articles on Shakespeare in Hanoi, on Shakespeare and autistic students, on young offenders and Othello, and on digitized promptbooks, is now available for free download.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE PDF

You can read back issues of Teaching Shakespeare elsewhere on this website.

Nominations Open for our 2018 Fellowships

22nd May 2017

An Invitation from the Chair of the BSA Fellowship Committee, Andrew Jarvis

The British Shakespeare Association endows two Honorary Fellowships each year. This year, 2017, the Fellowships are to be given to Sarah Stanton – formerly Publisher of Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature Studies at Cambridge University Press – and to the actor Adrian Lester. The Fellowships will be endowed at a special Fellowship Event on Saturday November 4th 2017 – commencing at 3.30 pm. The Event will follow the British Shakespeare Association AGM earlier in the day, at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-Upon-Avon. The BSA now needs to be thinking about who the recipients will be for 2018.

I would like to invite all current Members of the BSA to offer nominations for next year’s award. The choice for nomination should fulfil the following criterion :

The title of ‘Honorary Fellow of the British Shakespeare Association’ should be reserved for those who, at whatever level, have made, or are making, over a significant period of time, a major contribution to the field of Shakespeare activities, whether it be in Scholarship, Education more generally, or in the Performance of the plays.

It is certainly permitted for Members to take soundings individually within the wider field of Shakespeare activities, but it must be on the understanding that enquiries will need to be tactfully made, that information should remain strictly confidential, and that no candidate should be approached individually.

All nominations, from whichever area or constituency, require:

• The names of two nominators: a Proposer and a Seconder
• A formal written proposal, stating the case for nomination. This text should be at least 250 words in length.

Once all nominations have been received, the Fellowship Committee will then make a decision – via discussion and a voting process – on who the two candidates shall be. Those two names will then be presented and recommended to a meeting of the full Board of Trustees – a process which then requires the Board’s ratification.

Previous recipients of the Fellowships over the past few years have been: Cicely Berry, John Joughin, Reginald Foakes, Terence Hawkes, John Russell Brown, Janet Suzman and Chris Grace. As you will know, last year (2016), the two Fellowships were endowed on Emeritus Professor Ann Thompson and Emeritus Director of the RSC John Barton.

I really would welcome as many names as possible please, covering all the constituencies of the BSA. It would be both ideal and wonderful to hear from every single individual member of the BSA and Board with a nomination.

The Nominee does not need to be “well-known”. Celebrity is not a necessary criterion – indeed, in some cases, it can be positively unhelpful. Significant achievement is the key. Last year, for example, the Committee received a nomination for a secondary-school teacher who had clearly been a lifetime inspiration to many hundreds of his students. A wonderful choice for nomination – and exactly what we are talking about: someone who has exhibited a lifetime of achievement in the celebration and forwarding of Shakespearean thinking.

The closing date for Nominations is September 1st 2017.

Please send all nominations to the Chair of the Fellowship Committee – Andrew Jarvis – via e-mail to: jarvis-andrew@hotmail.com

With many thanks, in anticipation, to you all

Andrew

Renowned Designer’s Posters on Show at the Offensive Shakespeare Conference

17th May 2017

The Offensive Shakespeare conference, sponsored by the BSA, will take place at Northumbria University next week, 23^rd-24^th May. The conference will be accompanied by a mini-exhibition of Shakespearean posters by the renowned graphic designer, Lex Drewinski. If you have a chance, do stop by to see these amazing images. You can see more of Lex Drewinski’s work on facebook.

The organisers thank the author for kindly allowing us to use the poster reproduced here in our conference publicity. The poster won the 2015 competition ‘Shakespeare ∞’, organised by Galeria Plakatu AMS in Warsaw, Poland. We also thank the gallery’s director, Janusz Górski, for the permission to reproduce the image. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

For more details about the conference, please visit the Northumbria University webpage.

John Barton receives his Honorary Fellowship

11th May 2017

The 2016 recipient of the BSA Honorary Fellowship Award was John Barton. Unfortunately, due to illness, John was unable to attend the Honorary Fellowship Event, held as the climax of the BSA’s Conference last year at the University of Hull.

It was only recently that circumstances came together sufficiently for the BSA to present the Honorary Fellowship commemorative wooden sculpture – together with a book containing the many tributes paid and photographs – to John in person.

Our photographs below show John receiving the tokens from Andrew Jarvis, BSA Trustee and Chair of the Fellowship Committee, at his home in London, on Friday May 5th 2017.

For a video of tributes to John Barton, made on the occasion of the award of the fellowship and followed by a lecture from Stanley Wells, CBE, on the genius of Shakespeare, please click below:

Michael Bogdanov – A Shakespearean Giant Remembered

2nd May 2017

(Or “Andy…………….Andy!”)

“Andy…………Andy!” Imagine those words spoken with a breathy, child-like enthusiasm – as any one of our own childhood friends would have done at seven years old on the first day of the Summer Holidays, filled with some mad-cap exciting idea in hand.

Now that he is no longer with us, that is the image which immediately springs into my mind whenever I now think of Michael – as I do. Constantly.

When Hotspur’s father Northumberland fails to appear at the Battle of Shrewsbury in Shakespeare’s Henry IV Part 1, he has a line which for me, at this moment, sums up the loss of Michael Bogdanov to British theatre – and in particular, to its Shakespearean life : “A very limb lopped off.”

It is a sentiment and sense of loss in which I unconditionally share. The one man who has had the greatest influence on my life as a Shakespearean actor during my 50 year career is, I can quite easily say, Michael Bogdanov.

From the first moment I met him in 1986 – at an interview for a prospective role in his embryonic English Shakespeare Company – his enthusiasm and passion for Shakespeare completely bowled me over. Here was a man full of a commitment to the performing of Shakespeare’s plays as a necessary requirement and responsibility in this particular political and cultural moment in our society’s life. It wasn’t just : “Oh well, we might as well do a production of Twelfth Night – because that’s always popular”;  but rather : “It is vital that we put on the Henry IVs and Henry V now, because………………”  –  and then he didn’t pause for breath for the next 40 minutes.

The opening description, and the latter one – illustrations from my professional life and relationship with Michael, simply sum him up: creative joy and political rigour.

A child-like enthusiasm and playfulness in the act of creating theatre – where anything, no matter how initially improbable we of lesser imagination and courage think it; coupled with a passion that believed that we can change the world, if we can only commit ourselves fully and unconditionally to the act of theatre as a tool of social and political change. That was Michael.

He was quite simply a giant of Shakespearean theatre.

I could fill a book – in fact, probably two, with the detail of what it was like to work with Michael.

First and foremost, for we actors – he was simply our dream assignment. He did what all play directors should do for their actors – he released them into the freedom of finding their fullest acting resources. He served the playwright, he served the play – and then, he gave his actors the insights, the pre-conditions and the confidence which enabled them also to fulfil those same objects of service. His brief was always the same:  to tell the story – and by that he didn’t just mean the storyline, but the story of each character’s individual thought and action, moment by moment. He provided the runway in rehearsal – the circumstance out of which the action could proceed – by his rigorous honesty in questioning what the playwright required from us as storytellers at any particular moment. It made acting appear to be so simple – which indeed, ultimately, it is. His trust, his invitation to a collusion in a joint process of discovery, made him irresistible. And working with him was what proper theatre should be – ego-less. Get out of the way and let Shakespeare speak.

It is that passion, that ability to imagine hugely, and that enthusiasm, to which I immediately return when I think of Michael now following his passing.

I remember, that while we were still in rehearsal for The Henrys in 1986 – and not a word at that moment had been spoken in public by the English Shakespeare company – I walked into rehearsal one morning to be greeted by Michael saying : “Andy……….Andy – I was just saying, that we should do the entire Shakespeare history cycle next, and just do The Wars of the Roses.” I remember the moment vividly. Already, another extraordinary dream – before the first one had even properly started.  Sure enough though, in time we then proceeded to do The Wars of the Roses – against all of the odds.

Then again, in the late 1990s, when Michael was opening a new office for the ESC in Newcastle, he asked me to join him in a press conference to launch the venture. While we were waiting backstage, Michael suddenly said : “Andy………..Andy – I’ve been thinking – for the Millennium celebrations, we should do the Complete Works of Shakespeare non-stop, over a week. Five companies of actors, with five directors, performing all of the plays, 24 hours a day.” Over a week! I remember saying : “But Michael – that would mean that you would end up performing Two Gentlemen of Verona at two o’clock on a wet Wednesday morning!” Oh ye of little imagination! Michael simply brushed my wimpish and unimaginative protestation aside. In the event, Michael’s plan never materialised – but even now, I remember thinking at the time what an extraordinary visionary he was. Not only did he have the vision and imagination to come up with this idea in the first place– but he then had the utter belief that it was achievable. I remember sitting there simply in awe at his courage and child-like ability to believe that anything was possible. And that is what made him one of the greatest Shakespearean directors of his generation.

Over the final four or five weeks of his life I had the great privilege of exchanging frequent telephone calls and e-mails with Michael. We were planning a project together which, unfortunately, can now never happen – although it will, in a different form, and in honour of his name, you may be sure. During those conversations, his energy, passion and enthusiasm were undiminished – it was still : “Andy……….Andy!” On each occasion, I left either the telephone or the computer both elated and refreshed by his imaginative honesty and clarity. He remained a true life-force. A few days later – and he was no longer with us. But without any doubt, he went down with all flags flying and all guns still blazing. He was not about to “…………..go gentle into that good-night” – to quote another of his great heroes, Dylan Thomas.

The greatest tribute that I can pay to Michael is to say that he changed my life – and the memory of his Shakespearean force will continue to influence all of my work.

Just over two years ago, the BSA held its conference at the University of Stirling. The climax and highlight of the conference was a session on the final morning entitled – In Conversation : Michael Bogdanov and John Drakakis. That morning, I kid you not, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Two giants of Shakespeare – just talking! It can all end now I thought. However, what came out of that morning was revelatory for me. I had always known that I had learned a lot from Michael over the years – but that morning made it absolutely clear that everything – and I mean EVERYTHING – that I now believe about Shakespeare and its performance, came from Michael.

Only in his death is he receiving finally the generosity of acclaim which he was so shamefully and so often denied during his life. A great light has gone out.

I can now turn only to Michael’s mentor – the old man himself – to put it into words for me : “The breaking of so great a thing should make a greater crack”.

Michael – “May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.”

By Andrew Jarvis