Blogging Shakespeare

I wonder how you’ll be marking Shakespeare’s birthday this year? In Stratford-upon-Avon the celebrations take place over a few days (from Friday 20 through to Monday 23 April). There will be a large, international gathering and a terrific party atmosphere, visiting troupes, lots to see and enjoy in the streets. This year sees the start [...]

Continuing my series on the sources for Shakespeare’s plays, I turn my attention to The Two Gentlemen of Verona. This is one of those plays were there is at least one very clear source, a Spanish pastoral romance called Diana Enamorada, written by Jorge de Montemayor and published in 1542. Shakespeare probably had access to [...]

Today I strike the ground on the first day of the third and final phase of ‘Dig for Shakespeare’. It seemed timely to take stock and to reflect a little on something we learned during phase one… During the first season, back in 2010, we were able to re-expose the foundations identified by Halliwell-Phillipps and [...]

I recently had the pleasure of working as an advisor for a production of Henry VI Part Three by the Lit Moon Theatre Company, directed by John Blondell, in Santa Barbara, California. This production partly represented a run-up for Blondell with his home company in preparation for the production he will direct with the Bitola [...]

Continuing my series on Shakespeare’s sources (just five more to blog) I turn my attention to Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida. This story, part Greek mythology, part medieval love story, revolves around the camp during the Trojan wars. It may seem a curious choice of subject matter, and certainly displays a curious combination of tragedy and [...]

Birmingham University Ph.D. student Val Brodie explains how she benefitted from The Louis Marder Shakespeare Centre Scholarship: ‘I was thrilled, surprised and delighted to be awarded the Louis Marder Scholarship in 2010. I was just about to start the detailed research at The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust on the theatre producer Charles Calvert for Chapter Three [...]

Towards the back of the New Place plot is a replica Tudor Knot Garden, this is located in the area thought to have been within the back plot (gardens) away from the main New Place structures. The Knot Garden was constructed by Earnst Law in 1919-20. During this time the original ground levels were reduced [...]

Ian Donaldson’s marvellously fresh and up to date biography of Ben Jonson sets a new standard for all future Jonson studies. He came to speak about the relationship between Jonson and Shakespeare at The Shakespeare Centre on Wednesday at our first Literary Lunchtime Talk of the year. The event was sponsored by Oxford University Press. [...]

To Bristol last Saturday to see Andrew Hilton’s latest offering for Shakespeare at The Tobacco Factory: King Lear with John Shrapnel in the title role. Hilton’s Shakespeare productions tell the story with great clarity, strong characterisation, and a crisp, authoritative, non-laboured delivery of the language. This makes a visit to a production at Shakespeare at [...]