The Society for Renaissance Studies Annual Lecture: ‘Witnessing Early Drama: Spectating, from The Cycle Plays to Shakespeare’

A free public lecture hosted by the Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Aberdeen.  5.30 pm Thursday 28th February, 2013

‘Witnessing Early Drama: Spectating, from The Cycle Plays to Shakespeare’
Professor Greg Walker  (Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, Edinburgh)

Professor Greg Walker has written widely on late-medieval drama and poetry, Renaissance literature, the history of the stage in the period before the building of the professional playhouses, and the cultural consequences of the Henrician Reformation. He is currently Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded 'Staging and Representing the Scottish Renaissance Court' project, with Professor Thomas Betteridge (Oxford Brookes University)

Venue: Meeting Room 1 (Rm 706), Sir Duncan Rice Library, University of Aberdeen.  All welcome.

For more information or to reserve a place please contact the organiser Andrew Gordon: a.gordon@abdn.ac.uk

The Society for Renaissance Studies is a charitable body promoting the study of the Renaissance period. For more information on its activities and for details of membership go to: http://www.rensoc.org.uk/

Witnessing Early Drama: Spectating, from The Cycle Plays to Shakespeare

The Society for Renaissance Studies Annual Lecture

A free public lecture hosted by the Centre for Early Modern Studies, University of Aberdeen.
5.30 pm Thursday 28th February, 2013

‘Witnessing Early Drama: Spectating, from The Cycle Plays to Shakespeare’
Professor Greg Walker
(Regius Professor of Rhetoric and English Literature, Edinburgh)

Professor Greg Walker has written widely on late-medieval drama and poetry, Renaissance literature, the history of the stage in the period before the building of the professional playhouses, and the cultural consequences of the Henrician Reformation. He is currently Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded 'Staging and Representing the Scottish Renaissance Court' project, with Professor Thomas Betteridge (Oxford Brookes University)

Venue: Meeting Room 1 (Rm 706), Sir Duncan Rice Library, University of Aberdeen

All welcome.

For more information or to reserve a place please contact the organiser Andrew Gordon: a.gordon@abdn.ac.uk

The Society for Renaissance Studies is a charitable body promoting the study of the Renaissance period. For more information on its activities and for details of membership go to: http://www.rensoc.org.uk/

Master Workshop: 'Editing and Performing Measure for Measure’ (at the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, USA)

To run alongside a new adaptation of Measure for Measure, The New Oxford Shakespeare will be running a Master Workshop, ‘Editing and Performing Measure for Measure

Saturday, 23rd February 2013, 10am -1pm
Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Prof. Gary Taylor, Prof. Terri Bourus, Dr. Rory Loughnane, Dr. Anna Pruitt & Special Guest Actor-Director Christopher Marino (Chicago)

In this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to discuss some of the various issues that arise in editing and performing Shakespeare’s plays with the on- site editors of The New Oxford Shakespeare. Topics include: early modern adaptation; editing drama as a multimedia art form; theatre as a form of research.

Numbers are restricted for this workshop, so please contact Lindsay Rosa at newoxfordshakespeare@gmail.com to reserve your place.

About Measure for Measure 
After the international success of The History of Cardenio, Hoosier Bard returns to the Fringe with a world-premiere double bill: Shakespeare's original Measure for Measure, set in Italy, uncensored, written in 1603, alongside the more familiar version, adapted in 1621 by “our other Shakespeare”, Thomas Middleton, set in Vienna. There will be free talkbacks after every performance with the director, Terri Bourus, and members of the cast. See the newly restored Italian version on Feb 21, 22, 23, and the Viennese version on Feb 28 or March 1, 2.

Hoosier Bard is the theatrical arm of The New Oxford Shakespeare project.

About The New Oxford Shakespeare 
William Shakespeare is the most influential writer in the English Language. Oxford University Press is long established as the most authoritative publisher of critical editions of literary texts. In 1986-7, a team led by Stanley Wells (CBE) and Gary Taylor produced a groundbreaking new edition of the Complete Works. This was the first edition of Shakespeare ever to publish edited texts of the Complete Works in both modern and original spelling, and to provide a complete discursive textual apparatus. Now, over 25 years later, an inter-generational team of leading scholars, adopting the latest advances in editorial theory and practice, is producing a wholly new edition of the plays and poems of William Shakespeare. This edition will be the standard-bearer for future generations of scholars, teachers, readers and performers.
page2image42872 page2image43032 page2image43624

New Publication: The First Volume of "Shakespeare and His Contemporaries" Graduate Conference, 2009-2011

The British Institute of Florence is pleased to announce the online publication of the first volume of the Proceedings of the “Shakespeare and His Contemporaries” Graduate Conference, comprising papers chosen from the three conferences organised by the Institute in the period 2009-2011.

The Shakespeare Graduate Conferences – with the participation of scholars such as Prof. Emerito Alessandro Serpieri, Prof. Fernando Cioni, Prof.ssa Claudia Corti and Prof.ssa Paola Pugliatti of Florence University, of Prof. Keir Elam of Bologna University, and Prof.ssa Carla Dente of Pisa University, founding member of the Italian Association of Shakespearean and Early Modern Studies – were devised to allow young doctoral candidates at Italian universities, as well as those who have recently taken their doctorate, an opportunity to present their research to peers and professors.

The volume gathers together papers in English and Italian that in their variety of content and methodology reflect the current lively interest in Shakespearean studies in Italy: some concentrate on individual works by the great playwright while others address more general themes relating to the historico-cultural period.

Proceedings of the “Shakespeare and His ContemporariesGraduate Conference are now available in pdf format on the Institute’s website at www.britishinstitute.it/en/library/harold-acton-library.asp.

The publication of the proceedings will be announced at the Cultural Programme on Wednesday 17 April 2013 and at the opening session of the Fifth edition of the Shakespeare Graduate Conference on Thursday 18 April 2013, during Shakespeare Week 2013.

For further information, please contact Sofia Novello, snovello@britishinstitute.it.

Unlocking the Private Library

Symposium on Saturday 9 February at Winchester College, Winchester, SO23 9NA

Registration is now open for<http://unlockingtheprivatelibrary.wordpress.com/> Unlocking the Private Library, a symposium which will be held at Winchester College, in partnership with the University of Birmingham, on Saturday 9 February.

This symposium is open to anyone interested in the past and future of private libraries as resources for scholars and communities. It will showcase new research into a range of collections, including early modern books at Hereford Cathedral and Petworth House. There will also be an opportunity to view an exhibition of books from the Fellows' Library of Winchester College in the course of the day.

The keynote address will be given by Mark Purcell, Libraries Curator to the National Trust.

Registration: £10 standard, £5 students (includes lunch and refreshments).

For details of the programme and how to register, please visit our website<http://unlockingtheprivatelibrary.wordpress.com/>.

Shakespeare and Feminism: The Eventful History of Juliet and her Romeo

Lecture on Monday 4 February at 5.30 in the Council Room, King’s Building, King’s College London

Catherine Belsey (University of Swansea) will give a lecture on ‘The Eventful History of Juliet and her Romeo’.

The lecture will be followed by a reception.

Catherine Belsey’s most recent book is A Future for Criticism (2011). After many years at Cardiff University as Chair of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Theory, she is now research professor at Swansea University. She is author of Why Shakespeare?(2007) as well as Shakespeare and the Loss of Eden (1999) and The Subject of Tragedy(1985). Her Shakespeare in Theory and Practice (2008) indicates how her two major interests have interacted, as does Critical Practice (1980, 2002). The theory takes centre stage in Poststructuralism: A Very Short Introduction (2002) and Culture and the Real (2005).

This is one of a series of lectures presented by the London Shakespeare Centre at King’s College London, featuring distinguished speakers whose publications and teaching have had a major impact on how we read Shakespeare today in the aftermath of th ‘literary theory’ revolution of the late twentieth century to which they have all made significant contributions.

The next lecture will be on 18 March when Coppelia Kahn of Brown University will speak on ‘Feminist Criticism, Queer Theory, and Shakespeare in the Twenty-first Century’.

Renaissance Men in the Middle Temple

1st and 2nd February, 2013
To be held at Middle Temple Hall and Birkbeck College, London

To register or for further information go to http://middletemple2013.wordpress.com/ and follow us…

Confirmed speakers:

Dr Sarah Knight (Leicester University)
Dr Subha Mukherji (Cambridge University)
Dr Lucy Munro (Keele University)
Dr Paul Raffield (Warwick University)
Professor Jessica Winston (Idaho State University)


‘Delight in revels and in banqueting
Wanton discourses, musicke and merie songes’

The four Inns of Court were, according to Ben Jonson, ‘the noblest nurseries of humanity’. All highly influential in terms of their members’ legal, political and artistic roles, the Middle Temple proved a particularly fertile context. At the end of Elizabeth’s reign especially, the Middle Temple saw many of its members involved in the creation, reception and development of literature and performance. The Inn was a training ground for men who came to transgress and challenge societal norms, and whose future careers were to influence disparate areas of life, from law and politics to dance and drama. Famous members of Middle Temple included John Marston, John Ford, John Webster, Edward Sharpham, Richard Martin, John Davies, John Hoskins, Henry Wotton, Thomas Overbury, Benjamin Rudyerd, Charles Best and John Manningham.

Traditionally a night of celebration, the second day is Candlemas, and the conference will conclude with our own Revels, including dinner and entertainment in Middle Temple Hall. There will be a medley of music, dance and drama inspired by some of the Renaissance Men of the Middle Temple featured in the conference, with performers in historical costume, including The Nonsuch Dancers. The evening event is also open to those not attending the conference.

See http://middletemple2013.wordpress.com/ or email one of the conference organizers:

Jackie Watson – jwatso05@mail.bbk.ac.uk and
Darren Royston - droyst01@mail.bbk.ac.uk

Conference hosted by the London Renaissance Seminar
The London Renaissance Seminar meets regularly at Birkbeck College, London, holding seminars, events and conferences.