What’s past is prologue

Since beginning my career as a professional librarian, my greatest interest has always been in helping individuals learn. Initially this meant finding and understanding the resources they needed for study but when I came to work at the Shakespeare Centre Library in Stratford-upon-Avon, which cares for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s archives, I realised that the material remains of productions are rich resources for the study and understanding of his work.

Copies of the books which Shakespeare used as original sources also offer insights. Comparing the source, the spark from which his imagination took fire, and Shakespeare’s own version, is to see genius in action.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work on many projects aimed at making Shakespeare’s work and the study of it on stage more accessible.

•  Collaborating on projects aiming to make digital images of Shakespeare-related items, including RSC productions, freely available online.
• The creation of the online RSC Performance Database that holds data on RSC productions and personnel. This is still one of the most comprehensive resources of its kind
• Setting up the documentation, organisation and cataloguing of the RSC’s archives including major photographic acquisitions.
• Creation and delivery of presentations on the RSC’s archives.
• Delivering papers and presentations to major conferences including the British Shakespeare Association.
• Interviews on TV and Radio.
• Writing journal and newspaper articles.
• Presentations, lectures and teaching on the work and holdings of the Shakespeare Centre Library.

 Since retiring Shakespeare has continued to be my focus:

• I spoke at national and international conferences including the American Shakespeare Association.
• I started the Shakespeare Blog which now contains over 900 posts. Work on this ceased for three years after I contracted long covid in late 2022 but my aim is to continue to write posts for my blog.
• I contributed a chapter for Cambridge University Press’s book Shakespeare and the Digital World, edited by Christie Carson and Peter Kirwan, 2014.
• I co-wrote a chapter on Celebrating Shakespeare’s Birthday in Stratford-upon-Avon in Shakespeare Jubilees: 1769-2014, edited by Christa Jansohn and Dieter Mehl, published by LIT Verlag in 2015.  I have given many talks on this subject.
• I developed a project capturing audience memories of Shakespeare in Performance, and some of the recordings are available on my blog.
• I co-wrote The Story of the Shakespeare Club of Stratford-upon-Avon 1824-2016, published in 2016.
• In 2019-20 I worked on an exhibition that was eventually displayed in 2022 (post-Covid) at Nash’s House in Stratford on the 1827-1872 theatre that stood nearby, the first Shakespearean Theatre in the world. I have spoken on the subject multiple times and contributed two chapters to the small book The Shakespeare Club of Stratford-upon-Avon 1824-2024: a Souvenir, published in 2024.