Monthly Archives: November 2014

The British Shakespeare Association, Education and reality TV

Almost every Shakespeare-related cultural organisation puts education high on its agenda, in particular offering to help teachers engage their students. While many are in effect promoting their own services, the British Shakespeare Association “is a professional association and registered charity … Continue reading

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Witchcraft on page and stage

The Royal Shakespeare Company is currently staging the multi-authored play The Witch of Edmonton, first performed in 1621. It’s easy to see how attractive the play is since its subject relates so closely to Macbeth. In Shakespeare’s play the weird … Continue reading

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Celebrating Shakespeare and the Birthday Play

I recently wrote about the launch of Shakespeare’s Celebrations, a new organisation that is breathing new life into the celebration of Shakespeare’s Birthday in Stratford-upon-Avon. The story can be traced back to David Garrick’s Shakespeare Jubilee even though, taking place … Continue reading

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“Your gown’s a most rare fashion”: costume and Shakespeare

Picture the Elizabethan period and the chances are you will think of portraits, probably one of those dazzling paintings of Queen Elizabeth herself. There are so many, so well-known, they have individual names: the Armada portrait, the Hardwick portrait, the … Continue reading

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#LoveTheatre day: celebrating creativity with Twitter

On Wednesday 19 November there’s going to be a real celebration of theatre as the first #LoveTheatre day takes off. Over 300 venues and organisations are taking part from places as far apart as Europe, Australia, Canada, Sri Lanka, Chile … Continue reading

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Remembering Richard Pasco, Shakespearian actor

  On Wednesday 12 November Richard Pasco became the third eminent Shakespeare actor with close associations to Stratford-upon-Avon to die in 2014. Sadly there has been little immediate media interest, unlike that which met the death of Donald Sinden, and, … Continue reading

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Printing and publishing in Shakespeare’s world

A couple of weeks go I heard an interview with an author who had tracked down the people who had pre-owned some of his books. It sparked a discussion about writing in books, from a simple signature of ownership, to … Continue reading

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Marking the centenary of World War 1 with Shakespeare

This week the marking of the centenary of the outbreak of World War 1 has reached its climax with Remembrance Sunday and Armistice Day. The installation of the sea of ceramic poppies at the Tower of London has shown how … Continue reading

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Being Human: Shakespeare and the humanities

It was in 1998 that Harold Bloom’s book Shakespeare: the Invention of the Human was published.  In the book “Bloom presents one of the boldest theses of Shakespearean scholarships: that Shakespeare not only invented the English language, but also created … Continue reading

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Shakespearean dark ladies, George Bernard Shaw and the National Theatre

Everybody loves a mystery, and one of the most persistent is the identity of Shakespeare’s so-called Dark Lady. (It’s by no means certain that there ever was such a person).I wrote a couple of years ago about this story, particularly as … Continue reading

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