For almost 40 years Sarah Stanton shaped the field of Shakespeare studies through her work as chief commissioning editor at Cambridge University Press. Her faith, encouragement and knowledge has been both a source of inspiration for many of those thinking and writing about Shakespeare. Whenever she is asked ‘What is there new to say about Shakespeare?’, Sarah tells us that she replies as follows: ‘Shakespeare is a glorious, baggy monster. He lived 400 years ago, but his drama made living history.  […] If you switch on a performance of Macbeth or A Midsummer Night’s Dream, you have no such familiar anticipation [… as you would with Austen or Dickens … ] And so with books on Shakespeare […] as each generation finds something new, so the texts of these plays and poems must be adjusted, introduced, annotated, illustrated for students and theatregoers of the next age.’

Adrian Lester has become one of the most eminent Shakespearean actors of his generation. He first came to public attention for his stunning rendition of Rosalind in the famous all-male production of As You Like It by the Cheek By Jowl Theatre Company. Since then he has excelled in the roles of  Hamlet, Henry V and Othello at the National Theatre. His Hamlet won the Carlton TV Theatre Award and his Othello the joint winner of the Best Actor Award in the 2013 Evening Standard Theatre Awards. In addition to his stage performances, he has also demonstrated a passionate commitment to fostering conversations about race and racial diversity in Shakespearean performance.

Dame Judi Dench is an Oscar award-winning film, stage and television actor. Her Shakespearean screen roles include Mistress Quickly and Hecuba in Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V and Hamlet, as well as her lauded appearance as Queen Elizabeth I in John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love (1998). She is perhaps best known to wider audiences for her appearances as ‘M’ in seven James Bond films as well as the title roles of Iris, Mrs Brown and Mrs Henderson Presents. She was a regular member of the RSC ensemble throughout the 1970s and returned in recent years as the Countess in All’s Well that Ends Well (2003) and Mistress Quickly in Merry Wives: The Musical (2006). She was awarded an OBE in 1970 and DBE in 1988.

Cicely Berry is Director of Voice at the Royal Shakespeare Company, where, for forty-five  years, she has played a vital role in forming and developing the company’s working practices.  She has had an equally important impact on education and has also made Shakespeare’s language  available beyond the theatre through, for example, her work in prisons and with the Brazillian company Nos de Morro. She has published five books which provide detailed  accounts of her ideas, techniques and practices. Her awards include several honorary doctorates, the Sam Wanamaker Award (2000) and the Samuel H. Scripps Award (2007). In 2009, she was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours. She was made an Honorary Fellow in 2011 in recognition of her outstanding contribution to Shakespeare performance and education. An interview with Cicely is published in Teaching Shakespeare 1.

Professor John Russell Brown, who died in August 2015,  was a distinguished academic, dramaturg and theatre director. He established one of the country’s first university Drama departments at Birmingham and later ran the scripts department at the National Theatre. He also brought Shakespeare to the wider public as a television presenter and children’s author. He was best known for his pioneering work on Shakespeare in performance. He became an Honorary Fellow in 2014 in recognition of his exemplary contribution to British Shakespeare.

R. A. Foakes, who died in December 2013, was a critic, texual scholar, and theatre historian. His landmark edition of Henslowe’s Diary, co-edited with R. T. Rickert in 1961, was an essential work of scholarship surpassing the edition by W. W. Greg. Out of print by the turn of the century, copies fetched hundreds of pounds in the used-book market until Cambridge University Press reissued it in paperback in 2002. From his edition of Henry VIII for the Second Arden Shakespeare series in 1957 to King Lear for the Third Arden Shakespeare 40 years later, Foakes led a generation of post-war critics who combined theatrical and poetical sensibility with a forensic approach to documentary scholarship. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship in 2013 for his outstanding contribution to British Shakespeare.

Terence Hawkes, who died in January 2014, was a Shakespeare scholar of international renown. He is best known for his pioneering work in the fields of Literary Presentism (including That Shakespeherian Rag, 1986, and Shakespeare in the Present, 2002) and for his influence on Literary Theory following his seminal Structuralism and Semiotics (1977). His work on the Routledge New Accents series, the Alternative Shakespeares series, and founding of the journal Textual Practice are among his lasting contributions to English Studies. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship in 2014 for his outstanding contribution to British Shakespeare and his instrumental role in establishing the BSA. A fuller tribute to Terence may be found here.

Stanley Wells is Honorary President and Former Chairman of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

Dame Janet Suzman is one of the most pioneering performers and directors of Shakespeare during the last 50 years. As an actor, she has infused her roles with powerful emotions provoking the audience into startlingly new appraisals of the play. Her achievements as a director have been extensive and had a major impact upon future productions; in particular, her path-breaking direction of the Market Theatre Othello (available on film) allowed audiences from around the globe to perceive how the play resonated with present-day politics. Moreover, Suzman has used her skills as both actor and director to produce books, such as Acting with Shakespeare and Not Hamlet, that have inspired a generation of scholars, directors, actors, teachers and students.

Chris Grace has made Shakespeare live for young people. In 2000 he founded the Shakespeare Schools Festival, which is the largest youth drama festival in the UK and offers the opportunity for young people of all abilities and from all backgrounds to engage with Shakespeare. In addition, as Director of Animation at S4C, he created the hugely influential Shakespeare – The Animated Tales, ensuring that generations of children, inside and outside school, had their interest in Shakespeare sparked by the beauty and imagination of these pioneering broadcasts. Indeed, it remains the most popular programme on BBC Education. Above all, Grace’s work has been instrumental in inspiring, and continuing to inspire, teachers and young people.