Workshop

This is a workshop on teaching Shakespeare’s plays through performance, chiefly in secondary and tertiary education; the participants are local teachers or symposium speakers. Please note that there will be no spectators at this workshop.  The programme for the workshop will be as follows:  13:15 – 13:35: introduction by Kiki Lindell, Senior Lecturer, English Literature, LU. I will be talking of the course ‘Drama in Practice – Shakespeare on Stage’ which I have been running for about 15 years, and about why I think this performance approach works so well with EFL English speakers and native speakers of English alike, bringing with it its own brand of bardolatry and ownership of the plays.  13:35-14:35 workshop with Mette Sjölin (who recently defended her PhD thesis on modern appropriations of Shakespeare’s plays at LU) on how to work with blank verse in the classroom.  14:35-15:00: coffee break  15:00-17:00: Bridget Escolme, Senior Lecturer in Drama, Queen Mary, University of London, will lead a workshop that explores the staging convention of direct address to the audience in Much Ado About Nothing, and pays particular attention to gendered ideas of shame and display in the play.