Getting more out of Shakespeare

If you would like to get more out of your visit to Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre this summer, these could be the talks and workshops for you. Go along to one of the special study afternoons and enjoy an entertaining and informative pre-show talk by a top Shakespeare expert.

You’ll read key scenes together as part of the afternoon workshop and work with leading Shakespeareans to understand the play’s action, explore its language and the dramatic possibilities of each scene.

You’ll also hear expert and lively perspectives on the play and learn about famous past performances, with contributions from professional actors from Shakespeare’s Rose Theatre company, before seeing the evening performance.

Tuesday 10 July – Macbeth

Guest speaker:
Peter Holland is McMeel Family Professor in Shakespeare Studies at the University of Notre Dame, having previously been Director of the Shakespeare Institute in Stratford-upon-Avon. He is editor of Shakespeare Survey and the Chair of the International Shakespeare Association. He is General Editor for the series Great Shakespeareans, Oxford Shakespeare Topics and Arden Shakespeare in the Theatre. He writes and speaks widely internationally on Shakespeare in performance and is currently writing a book on Shakespeare and forgetting. This is a rare opportunity to hear this leading Shakespearean speak in the UK.

Workshop leaders:
Professor Judith Buchanan and Carla Suthren (University of York) are experts in Shakespearean drama with special interests in text and performance and a love for exploring the plays’ dramatic possibilities.

Tuesday 24 July – Richard III

Guest speakers:
Mark Ormrod is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of York. An expert on medieval politics, he is the author of numerous works on English kingship and government in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. He was active in the debates that followed the discovery of Richard III’s remains at Leicester in 2012 and the campaign to have the last Plantagenet king reinterred in York. He is especially interested in the posthumous reputations of medieval monarchs, and has lectured extensively on the representations of kings in Shakespeare’s history plays.

Dr Megan Murray-Pepper is a Shakespearean scholar with a background in playhouse practice and performance at the Globe in London. Her research principally focuses both on Shakespeare’s own sources and on the adaptation and appropriation of Shakespeare’s works across forms and genres.

Workshop leaders:
Professor Judith Buchanan and Carla Suthren (University of York) are experts in Shakespearean drama with special interests in text and performance and a love for exploring the plays’ dramatic possibilities.

Wednesday 25 July – A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Guest speaker:
Judith Buchanan is Professor of Film and Literature and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of York. A Shakespearean with a special interest in performance, she was Shakespeare advisor to the recently released British Macbeth feature film, directed by Kit Monkman, and has contributed the expert voice-over commentaries to the British Film Institute DVDs Silent Shakespeare and Play On!Shakespeare in Silent Film. She speaks regularly to audiences in the UK and internationally.

Workshop leaders:
Professor Judith Buchanan and Carla Suthren (University of York) are experts in Shakespearean drama with special interests in text and performance and a love for exploring the plays’ dramatic possibilities.

Monday 30 July – Romeo and Juliet

Guest speaker:
Helen Smith is Professor of English and Head of the Department of English and Related Literature at the University of York. She is an early modern scholar with expertise in the history of books, printing and publication in the period and in the creative contributions of women and with a particular interest in the material stuff of the world and what we can learn from it.

Workshop leaders:
Professor Judith Buchanan and Carla Suthren (University of York) are experts in Shakespearean drama with special interests in text and performance and a love for exploring the plays’ dramatic possibilities.

To find out more, and to book your places, visit www.shakespearesrosetheatre.com