Beaumont 400

Guildhall Library, 11 March (evening) and King's College London, 12 March (day and evening)

In 1616, a leading dramatist and poet died and was roundly mourned by all of his contemporaries. His name? Francis Beaumont. The author of The Knight of the Burning Pestle and co-author of Philaster and The Maid’s Tragedy, died on 6 March 1616 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Following Adele Thomas's triumphant revival of The Knight at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at Shakespeare's Globe, it is time to reassess Beaumont's contributions to Jacobean drama and poetry, and his relationship with his long-time collaborator John Fletcher. 

With this conference we will take over the London Shakespeare Centre and restore Beaumont to the critical limelight with a symposium and a performance of his first play, The Woman Hater, by Edward’s Boys. Speakers include Suzanne Gossett, Lois Potter, Tracey Hill, Sarah Dustagheer, Kate Graham, Eoin Price, Simon Smith and Jackie Watson.

See Beaumont 400 for further details and booking. 

 For any enquiries, please email shakespeare@kcl.ac.uk.

Collaboration, Authorship and the Renaissance: Early Modern and Postmodern Perspectives

Queen’s University, Belfast, January 13-14, 2012

Timetable:

Friday 13th January (Seminar Room 2, International & Postgraduate Student Centre)

09.00 — 10.00 Registration/tea and coffee

10.00 — 11.15 Opening Plenary

• ‘Collaboration or Adaptation? Macro or Micro Authorship’ (Professor Gary Taylor, Florida State University) 

11.30 — 12.45 Session 1: Ambiguities and Attributions

• ‘“Cursed Locrine, looke vnto thy selfe”: The Ambiguous Labour of “W.S.”’ ( Peter Kirwan, University of Nottingham)
• ‘Collaboration and Attribution in Two Middleton-Dekker City Comedies’ (Eilidh Kane, University of Glasgow)

13.45 — 15.00 Plenary Paper 2

• ‘The Taming of the Shrew, the Coming of Sound and Authenticity’ (Deborah Cartmell, De Montfort University)

15.00 — 16.00 Session 2: Collaboration in Elsinore

• ‘Tampering with Hamlet: a model and example of collaborative negotiations’ (Maciej Piątek)
• ‘Intersubjectivity, Memory, and Hamlet’ (Rob Carson, Hobart and William Smith College)

16.15 — 17.15 Session 3: Collaboration and/in Print

• ‘“Ay, that’s the point”: punctuation and speculation in early modern printed drama’ (Ian Burrows, University of East Anglia)
• ‘Edmund Spenser’s Complaints and Paratextual Collaboration’(Rachel J. Stenner, University of Bristol)

17.30 Book launch/ Wine Reception [Venue: Old Staff Common Room]

Launch of The Edinburgh Companion to Shakespeare and the Arts (eds. Mark Thornton Burnett, Adrian Streete and Ramona Wray, Edinburgh University Press, 2011). Opening remarks by Gary Taylor.

Saturday 14th January (Seminar Room, Postgraduate Centre, 18 College Green)

09.30 — 10.00 Registration/tea and coffee
10.00 — 11.15 Plenary Paper 3

• ‘“The play of mr fletcher & owrs”: Writing and Rewriting the Early Modern Play’ (Professor Grace Ioppolo, University of Reading)

11.30 — 12.45 Session 4: Politics and Practices on the Collaborative Stage

• ‘Thomas Nashe as Dramatic Collaborator’(John Pendergast, Southern Illinois University)
• ‘“The play has no true centre”: Collaboration and Politics in Sir John van Olden Barnavelt’ (Conor Smyth, Queen’s University Belfast)

13.45 — 15.00 Session 5: Authors and Auteurs

• ‘Author and Auteur in Queer Edward II’ (John Blakeley, The University College Plymouth St Mark & St John)
• ‘Thor and back again: Kenneth Branagh and the evolution of the Shakespearean auteur’ (Kevin Murray, Queen’s University Belfast)
• ‘Shakespearean Authorship and Authority: Conjunctions Between Early Modern Enchantment in Dryden and Davenant’s Enchanted Island and Postmodern Disillusion in Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet’ (Thea Buckley, University of Birmingham)

15.15 — 16.30 Session 6: Collaboration in Modernity

• ‘Sharing Shakespeare? Authorship from a Theatre Perspective’ (Varsha Panjwani, University of York)
• [Final title tbc] (Elizabethan Reyes, University of Dallas)
• ‘From Song to Screen: Rewriting Shakespeare’s Sonnets in the Music of Henry Lawes and the Scripts of Star Trek’ (Faith Acker, University of St. Andrews)

16.45- 18.oo Session 7: Collaboration and Digital Media

• ‘Collaborative Theatre in the Fable Universe: Choices in Gameplay’ (Jonathan Malone, Queen’s University Belfast)
• ‘“fuckyeahshakespeare”: Re-Authorising Shakespeare in the Digital Commons’ (Conor Smyth, Queen’s University Belfast

6.00 p.m. Conference Dinner

Villa Italia (39 University Rd, Belfast). Approx. cost: £25-£30

For further information (e.g. re: travel, accommodation) and to book a place, contact the organisers (Conor Smyth and Kevin Murray) at: collaboration2012@qub.ac.uk as soon as possible.

Staged Reading of the Honest Man's Fortune

**The Annual Renaissance Colloquium presents a Staged Reading of
Nathan Field's and John Fletcher's The Honest Man's Fortune (1613).
At Canterbury Christ Church University Saturday 7th May 2011. Laud
Building (Lg25)**

The event will feature the staged reading of the entire play and will
culminate with a round-table discussion of the many issues associated with
this important and entertaining play. The leading roles of Montaigne and
Veramour will be read by Brian McMahon and Kelley Costigan.

The play itself, originally performed in 1613, has some interesting and at
times, downright bizarre instances of gender games upon the early modern
stage.

 **Schedule for the Event**

12.30: Welcome Coffee in Laud (Room Lg25)

12.45: Welcome and Introductory Notes

13.00: Staged Reading of The Honest Man's Fortune (with a short interval
at the end of Act III).

16.30: Round Table Discussion of the play with coffee.

17.15: Close


*Admission is free but prior registration is required. If you would like
to attend this event, please register by contacting Steve Orman.
sro3@canterbury.ac.uk