Monday 3rd December, 19:00

In this unique event, Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, comes to Southwark Cathedral, Shakespeare’s parish church, to give an illustrated talk about the dynamic and dangerous world that Shakespeare knew. MacGregor offers us a fascinating three-way conversation between objects of the time – a dagger, a magical mirror, a woollen cap – the men and women whose lives they touched, and the words of Shakespeare himself. He builds a picture of a world which had expanded in size with the discovery of the New World yet was crumbling in many of its central assumptions about identity, religion and history.

This event is chaired by The Very Reverend Andrew Nunn, The Dean of Southwark and Southwark Cathedral is in collaboration with Penguin Books and the British Museum.

Tickets are £5 plus booking fee and can be obtained from http://restlessworld.eventbrite.co.uk

The ticket entitles you to £5 off the publication Shakespeare’s Restless World by Neil MacGregor, available from the Cathedral Shop.

CCALL FOR PAPERS

Shakespeare, Performance, Place

2-3 November 2012

Queen’s University, Belfast

This two-day conference investigates Shakespearean performance and its relationship to place, location and geography. The themes are chosen to coincide with the first Shakespearean production to be staged at Belfast’s new Lyric Theatre and performance is defined broadly to encompass theatrical event, film, television and mass media. Plenary speakers include Dr Patrick Lonergan (Galway), Dr Lucy Munro (Keele), Prof. Stuart Hampton-Reeves (University of Central Lancashire) and Prof. Mark Thornton Burnett (QUB).

The conference is a collaboration between the School of English, Queen’s University, the British Shakespeare Association and the Irish Renaissance Seminar.

The conference fee is £30, which includes a tour of the new Lyric Theatre, a ticket to see Macbeth (directed by Lynne Parker), a new Shakespeare film showing, coffee, lunches and reception.

If you are interested in offering a paper or just attending the conference please contact Dr Ramona Wray before 28 September 2012 at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . A number of postgraduate bursaries have been generously provided by the BSA – again please contact Dr Ramona Wray for details.

Guest Speaker: Professor Andrew Gurr (Reading University)

Shakespeare editor and author of Playgoing in Shakespeare’s London

This one-day conference focuses upon performances, interpretations and publications of Shakespeare in the pre-modern period in the UK and beyond. It is envisaged that delegates will be addressing this subject from a number of disciplinary perspectives and presentations on the following subjects would be particularly welcome:

·      Shakespearean Performances 1590-1890s and Performance Reportage

·      Shakespearean Theatre History 1590-1890

·      World Shakespeares 1590-1890

·      Critical Responses to Shakespeare 1590-1890: e.g. journalism, diaries, correspondence

·      Reading Shakespeare 1590-1890: e.g. criticism, education, annotated editions

·      Material Shakespeare 1590-1890: mise-en-scène and mise-en-page

·      Shakespeare as Political Icon 1590-1890

These and other related subjects will be considered for presentation at this conference. Abstracts of no more than 200 words should be sent to the conference organising committee at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it no later than Friday 12^th October 2012. All abstracts should include the proposer’s name, title, mailing address, email address, institutional affiliation, student/employed status.

Volume 7 of the journal Shakespeare is about to appear.

Highlights include an article by David Schalkwyk, Director of Research at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC, on love in The Merchant of Venice and Sonnets, a special issue on Shakespeare's collaborations with his successor as the King's men's in-house dramatist, John Fletcher, which resulted in their co-authored plays Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen, and Cardenio, and a detailed study of recent archaeological discoveries that throw light upon Shakespeare, his theatre, and his world. This last topic brings together theatre historians such as Andrew Gurr, the key academic force driving the London Globe reconstruction, cultural historians such as Natasha Korda, an expert on material culture and women's labour (particular in the making of costumes), and the Museum of London archaeologist Julian Bowsher who was responsible for the digs at the sites of The Rose, The Globe, The Theatre, and more recently elsewhere (as revealed for the first time in his article). The volume also contains articles on film and stage adaptations of Shakespeare, and reviews of recent productions and important publications. Because it is the organ of the BSA, this illustrated volume of _Shakespeare_ totalling 240,000 words is offered to BSA members at a fifth of its cover price to the general public.