Expanding Horizons: Shakespeare and Indian Cinema

1st October 2020

Queen’s Film Theatre
Queen’s University, Belfast
20 University Square, Belfast BT7 1PA
Saturday, November 21, at 2.00pm

Prof. Mark Thornton Burnett, BSA Trustee, is delivering a Media and Performance event as part of the 2020 Being Human festival. At the ‘Expanding Horizons: Shakespeare and Indian Cinema’ event, we will screen a South Indian and Tulu language film adaptation of Macbeth, Paddayi/West (dir. Abhaya Simha, 2017), set in the ‘Mogaveera’ fishing community in Karnataka. The film adapts Shakespeare’s play to represent a society struggling to maintain traditional cultures in the face of the lure of the ‘west’.

Featuring a Q+A with the director and an introduction, and collaboratively delivered with partners – the British Shakespeare Association, Terra Nova Theatre Company, the Indian Community Centre and the Queen’s Film Theatre – the event showcases Shakespeare’s relevance to debate about globalisation, migration and demographic change.

CFP: Shakespeare and Versification

14th September 2020

Call for Submissions: ‘Shakespeare and Versification’

At the start of Charles Dickens’s Hard Times (1854), Mr M’Choakumchild drills his pupils in ‘the sciences of compound proportion, algebra, land-surveying and levelling’. The list continues, as a mixture of tedium and threat, until it reaches the ne plus ultra ‘prosody’ (Mr M’Choakumchild’s topics are ‘at the ends of his ten chilled fingers’, one finger for each of the syllables in a strict blank verse line). For a long time, versification has been a m’choakumchildish subject – with a reputation for being scientistic, deontological, rebarbative, and downright tedious.

A special issue of the journal Shakespeare, due to be published in 2022, will work to upset (perhaps to correct) this reputation. Where most scholarly work on versification has tended toward linguistics and authorship attribution studies, this special issue invites a broader consideration of Shakespeare’s prosody. The journal’s editors are keen to see fresh, imaginative scholarship about Shakespeare’s versification that works toward these ends. What would happen if we thought about metre more ambiguously or multiplicitously? Might we think about prosody alongside gender, or sexuality, or race, or class, or disability? Could we think about the cultural histories of Shakespeare’s metre, or its bibliographical and editorial histories in print and manuscript, or its dramaturgical qualities onstage? Do we need to reckon with the versification of Shakespeare’s contemporaries, in England and in Europe, to understand his own prosody aright (if it is indeed truly his own)?

Shakespeare is one of the leading journals in Shakespeare studies, and more information about it can be found here: https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=rshk20

The special issue will be edited by Dr Robert Stagg (The Shakespeare Institute / University of Oxford). It will include approximately five articles of c.6000 words each, though there is considerable flexibility as to word counts and so forth. All articles will be subject to double-blind peer review, as is customary in Shakespeare. Anyone interested, however provisionally, in contributing an article to the special issue is invited to email robert.stagg@ell.ox.ac.uk by the end of October 2020.

Teaching Shakespeare 20: Call for Papers

3rd July 2020

Teaching Shakespeare is an international, cross-sector magazine for educators and students that is freely available online via the British Shakespeare Association’s Education section of its website. It has a readership of over 1,000 in more than 60 countries — thanks to your continued support!

Founded in 2011, its twentieth issue will be published in early 2021. We want your article to feature, alongside the existing line up from Jamaica to Japan. There is limited space, so we will work on a first come, first served basis (though if you miss out, there is always issue 21, 22 and so on).

Teachers, lecturers, theatre and heritage practitioners, students the world over…we are looking to include your items in this issue. They could be a lively article, a lesson plan, a vox pop, a review of a book or resource (print or digital). We are open-minded about formats – as you will see if you browse our existing issues for inspiration.

Sign me up!

Your contribution should be 750–2,200 words on an aspect of Shakespeare and education. It should adhere to our guidance for authors (PDF). Once you’ve looked at these, send your contributions or questions to the editor, sarah.olive@york.ac.uk, by 1st October 2020.

2021 Honorary Fellowships Committee

1st June 2020

Do you have an interest in identifying and honouring those individuals who have made a substantial contribution to our understanding of Shakespeare as creatives or as scholars? The Honorary Fellowships committee is seeking to recruit two new members to take up a committee role this autumn.

While light-touch in terms of time commitment, joining the committee could be a good way of gaining administrative experience in a national organisation for an early career academic. Please contact the Chair of the Honorary Fellowships committee, Eleanor Rycroft, at e.rycroft@bristol.ac.uk for more information.

Celebration in Seclusion

23rd April 2020

Message from Chair

Dear Members,

Image by Brett Greatley-Hirsch

I hope, first and foremost that you are all well. It feels rather strange celebrating Shakespeare’s birthday over the next three days in the midst of a global pandemic which has created emotions from one end of the scale to the other – uncertainty, sadness, loneliness, rest, time to reflect, enjoy company of housemates or good weather.

As I always find, Shakespeare has something to say to us. In my case it was a speech from As You Like It – where by re-reading it, I was fascinated by new parallels to the rest of the canon – plays already written and those to come. You will all, I am sure, have your own favourites – speeches that we like or have felt comforted/uplifted by – during these times so if you would like to share them with other members by speaking them or sending them to us, that would be wonderful. Please email a link to the video (on YouTube, Vimeo, or similar site) to our Webmaster, webmaster@britishshakespeare.ws.

We are due to have a virtual Board Meeting on 8 May so if there is anything you would like, as members, to bring to our attention for discussion, please email me a.g.findlay@lancaster.ac.uk.

Take care everyone, and very best wishes for Shakespeare’s birthday!
Alison

Videos

Shakespeare on Social Isolation from Alison Findlay on Vimeo.

These Curious Days from Matthew Frost on YouTube.

We Are Human from Butterfly Theatre Company on YouTube.

In Lockdown, the Bottles Open Earlier from David Findlay on Vimeo.

Birthday Lectures

23rd April 2020

What was Shakespeare Really Like?

Birthday lectures by Professor Stanley Wells.

From Shakespeare’s Birthday (23 April), Professor Stanley Wells is making available a series of four, new public lectures: ‘What Was Shakespeare Really Like?’ These are commissioned (with Professor Stanley Wells’s forthcoming 90th birthday in mind) and are hosted by The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust.

More information about them can be found at www.shakespeare.org.uk/wells-lectures.

They are freely-accessible audio-posts (issued one a week), and will remain there. Please enjoy them, tell your friends and contacts about them, and spread the word on social media.

2020 BSA Conference Update

23rd March 2020

Dear Members,

In response to the very fast-moving public health crisis at a national and international level, our Events team have met with staff in Surrey and decided to cancel the BSA conference planned for July 16-18 in 2020.

We are very sorry to have to do this, as many of you have already undertaken work in preparation – none more so than the conference team at the University of Surrey led by Professor Marion Wynne-Davies. I would like to thank her and Professor Robert Shaughnessy, Emily Taylor and Jen Ratnayaka for everything they have done so far. There is a fantastic selection of panels and workshops organised from the papers and sessions that many of you have proposed.

Those members who have already registered for the conference will have your conference fees fully reimbursed. For those of you who have already made travel arrangements, the BSA can provide you with a formal letter explaining the cancellation of the conference in cases where this would help you to claim insurance for your cancelled conference travel and accommodation. Please email me directly — a.g.findlay@lancaster.ac.uk to request this.

I am very pleased to say that all the efforts to date will not be lost. The University of Surrey will host our re-animated BSA Conference ‘Shakespeare in Action’ next year from 5-7 August 2021. We have been given these dates by the Surrey conference office and, while we know we cannot be certain that things will be completely back to normal in 2021, we are planning ahead for then.

The Conference team are happy to accept all the papers and workshops proposed for this year as part of the 2021 programme. The team will contact you shortly, so please consider yourselves presenters-in-waiting. Once a new programme is drawn up, a second call for papers will be sent out to complete it.

In the meantime, we will be in touch with further events this year as and when the public health crisis permits. We will make arrangements to hold our AGM and our 2020 Honorary Fellowships Awards at such events, as soon as we are able, and hope that you will use this opportunity to make contact with each other.

Finally, I hope you will all keep safe and well over the coming months. Like Lennox in Macbeth I ‘advise you to a caution t’hold what distance / [your] wisdom can provide’ — and make your hand-washing better than Lady Macbeth’s! Robert Shallow reminds us ‘In these times, you stand on distance’ (MWW 1.1) but I hope this will not be for long.

With best wishes,
Alison

CFP: Shakespeare and the Jews: A Global Exploration

20th March 2020

In 1992, James Shapiro discussed ‘Shakespeare and the Jews’ in the James Parkes Lecture at the University of Southampton, a lecture that would form one of the cornerstones of his ground-breaking book of the same title. Thirty years later, in 2022, the journal Shakespeare pays homage to his research, both by looking back and reflecting on the issues Shapiro raised, and by looking around us in today’s world where the topic is as relevant as ever. Shakespeare and the accusation of anti-Semitism have long been intertwined, with The Merchant of Venice being central in this discourse. Today, the evidence of rising anti-Semitism has become almost impossible to ignore. There is a growing sense of urgency, as an increase in incidents is reported across the world, while in Europe, the continent most directly confronted with the horrors of the Shoah, anti-Semitism is no longer an issue confined to extremist parties but seems to have entered the political and cultural mainstream.

This special issue of Shakespeare invites submissions that analyse the topic ‘Shakespeare and the Jews’ in local and/or global contexts and a wide spectrum of thematic, methodological and disciplinary approaches. We are interested in representing a broad geographical range, and invite essays from both academics and practitioners in Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. While the topic is of obvious interest to Shakespeare scholars, we also encourage essays from other disciplines (or inter- and transdisciplinary essays), including Theatre Studies, Film Studies, Philosophy, Political and Historical Science, Ethics, Judaism, Middle Eastern Studies, Religious Studies and Anthropology.

Possible areas of interest include:

1. Dressing Jews: costuming in contemporary productions
2. Depicting Jews: representations in movie/performance posters, book covers or program notes
3. The ghetto in Shakespeare’s text and/or Shakespearean productions
4. Shakespeare, Jews and performance in the local (national or regional) context
5. Shakespeare and the Jews in amateur productions
6. Shakespeare, Jews and (de)constructing stereotypes
7. Shakespeare and the Jews in a multicultural society
8. Shakespeare, Jews and acting: movement and gestures on stage
9. Shakespeare’s Jews and religious encounters: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
10. Shakespeare and anti-Semitism on/off stage: local, national or transnational perspectives
11. Shakespeare and the Jews: a political perspective
12. Shakespeare, Jews and propaganda
13. Shakespeare, Jews and props on stage
14. Jewish themes in Shakespeare’s plays
15. Representing Jews in Shakespeare translations
16. The reception and/or adaptation of Shakespeare in Jewish communities across the world
17. The reception and/or adaptation of Shakespeare’s Jews in Israel and neighbouring countries
18. Jewish directors/actors responding to Shakespeare
19. A view from the classroom: on teaching Shakespeare and the Jews
20. A view at the screen: Shakespeare and Jews in films and on tv
21. Audience responses to Shakespeare’s Jews
22. Shaming Shakespeare: bans and censorship
23. The Merchant of Venice and the conflict in the Middle East
24. Shakespeare, Jews and pogroms
25. Affecting change through Shakespeare’s Jews
26. Money(lending) and anti-Semitic myths
27. Shakespeare, ethics and Jews
28. Shakespeare’s Jews, Gender and Sexuality
29. The impact of modern appropriations and adaptations of The Merchant of Venice

Guest editors: Coen Heijes (University of Groningen) & Sabine Schülting (Freie Universität Berlin)
Afterword: James Shapiro
Lengths of submissions: 6,000 – 7,000 words
Deadline for abstracts: April 15, 2020
Deadline for submissions: January 15, 2021
For further information, please contact c.p.a.heijes@rug.nl or sabine.schuelting@fu-berlin.de

Download CFP as a PDF file.

BSA New Trustee: Minuting Secretary

21st January 2020

The Board of Trustees of the British Shakespeare Association wishes to appoint a new Trustee to take up a position on the Board in Spring 2020. Trustees work voluntarily (with reasonable expenses reimbursed) to further the aims of the BSA across its four main constituencies of members: academic researchers, teachers, theatre practitioners and members of the public. We are looking to appoint a new Trustee with the designated task of taking minutes at each of the three Board meetings and at the AGM.

Nominations (including self-nominations) should be made by email to the Chair of the British Shakespeare Association a.g.findlay@lancaster.ac.uk by 1 March 2020.

British Shakespeare Association Election of New Trustee (Minuting Secretary)

The Board of Trustees of the British Shakespeare Association wishes to appoint a new Trustee to take up position on the Board in Spring 2020. The position of Trustee is voluntary (with reasonable expenses covered) so we are looking for a member of the BSA who will give of their time to further the aims of the BSA across its four main constituencies of members: academic researchers, teachers, theatre practitioners and members of the public.

The British Shakespeare Association is a registered Charity and its Trustees take joint responsibility to help the Board promote the Association’s objectives which are: to educate, promote, and foster a better understanding of Shakespeare and his works in a manner consistent with an educational charity limited by guarantee; and benefiting those individuals, members, charities, or institutions with an educational purpose toward the study of Shakespeare in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

In line with these objectives, and with its policy for diversity, inclusivity and equal opportunities, the Board warmly welcomes applications from any member of the Association, and from across all parts of the United Kingdom as well as our international members so that different constituencies are represented.

Trustees are required to attend three meetings of the Board of Trustees per year, which are normally held on a Saturday afternoon in different venues across the country (usually Stratford-on-Avon, Leeds, Cambridge, London), in January, May, September, and to attend the Association’s AGM.The BSA will meet all reasonable expenses for UK travel. associated with attending meetings and accepts virtual attendance via videoconferencing by some Trustees at Board Meetings. In addition, some of our Trustees also sit on sub-Committees of the Board (whose business is usually conducted virtually).

Minuting Secretary

The Board seeks to appoint a Trustee with the designated task of taking minutes at each of the 3 Board meetings. It is important to remember that, as Minuting Secretary, you are normally required to travel and by physically present at Board Meetings. The role does not require specialist skills such as shorthand. At the Board Meetings and the AGM the Minuting Secretary will

• Record any apologies,
• Make a brief summary of reports by Officers and Committee Chairs (who will usually provide electronic versions of their reports that can be pasted into the minutes after the meeting),
• Make a brief record of discussions on each point of the agenda, decisions taken, and action points for individuals, and
• Send a copy of the draft minutes to the Chair for editing.

Skills required: word processing.

The BSA is a charitable company limited by guarantee and all Trustees share a responsibility as Directors to ensure that the BSA is managed well.
Trustees are elected by the membership for three years and may stand for re-election for a second term.

• For more information on the roles and responsibilities of a Trustee, please read the documents published by the Charity Commission here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-essential-trustee-what-you-need-to-know-cc3.
• To make sure you are eligible to become a Trustee, please check the criteria on the Charity Commission website: https://www.gov.uk/government/get-involved/take-part/help-run-a-charity

What are the benefits of joining the BSA Board?

You will gain:

• opportunities for networking, mentoring and collaboration with scholars, practitioners and education professionals in Shakespeare studies;
• professional development through contributing to a non-profit charitable organisation;
• a wider perspective on Shakespeare and advance knowledge of Shakespeare-related events and research; and,
• the opportunity to steer the organisation to better meet the needs of practitioners in theatre, radio, tv, film, education, and academia, and to engage members of the public with the work of Shakespeare.

How to Apply

If you wish to nominate yourself please submit a 300 word (max) statement that outlines your interest in the role and your professional experience / affiliation. Send by email to the BSA’s Chair, Alison Findlay a.g.findlay@lancaster.ac.uk, by 1 March 2020. Do contact Alison should you require any further information.

Nominations for 2020 BSA Honorary Fellowships

24th September 2019

An Invitation from the Chair of the BSA Fellowship Committee:
The British Shakespeare Association endows two Honorary Fellowships each year. This year, 2019, the Fellowship was given solely to Professor John Drakakis, for his outstanding work and lifetime’s achievement in the field of Shakespearean scholarship.

For 2020, the BSA wishes to revert to the usual practise of awarding two Honorary Fellowships, to be endowed at next year’s annual conference in Surrey. I am therefore writing to ask you to offer your nominations for next year’s award. All members of the BSA are able to make nominations, but I would like to draw your attention to a change in nomination criteria, highlighted in bold below:
“The title of ‘Honorary Fellow of the British Shakespeare Association’ should be reserved for those who, at whatever level, have made, or are making, a major contribution to the field of Shakespeare activities, whether it be Scholarship, Education more generally, or the Performance of the plays. This contribution should fall into the category of demonstrating a lifetime’s achievement of excellence, or the demonstration of excellence through a sustained engagement with Shakespeare and his works.”

The language has been altered to encourage greater inclusivity in this aspect of the BSA’s work, partly on the basis of this year’s very successful conference and its attempts to unravel the hierarchies involved in the study and performance of Shakespeare. The Honorary Fellowships Committee and BSA Board acknowledge that there have been systemic obstructions in place that have debarred individuals from achieving a lifetime’s worth of excellence, and have agreed a change in the criteria language to reflect this.

Nevertheless, excellence is still the guiding criterion for nominating Fellows, and I would urge Members to adhere rigorously to the above, resisting issues of celebrity or public notoriety. It may be that your nomination is unheard of to the majority of BSA members but they have quietly transformed some aspect of Shakespeare scholarship, education, publishing, media or performance nonetheless.

It is certainly permitted for Members to individually take soundings within the wider field of Shakespeare activities, but on the understanding that enquiries will need to be tactfully made, that information should remain strictly confidential, and that no candidate should be approached individually.

All proposals, from whichever area, should then be accompanied by TWO nominations (a Proposer and a Seconder) along with a formal written proposal by the Proposer stating the case for nomination (a short paragraph of not less than 200 words and not more than 500 words).

Once all Nominations have been received, the Fellowship Committee will then make a decision – via discussion and vote – on who the two candidates shall be. Those two names will then be presented and recommended to a meeting of the full Board of Trustees – a process which then requires the Board’s ratification.

Previous recipients of the Fellowships over the past few years have been : Cicely Berry, Stanley Wells, John Joughin, Reginald Foakes, Terence Hawkes, John Russell Brown, Janet Suzman, Roger Harcourt, Chris Grace, Adrian Lester, Sarah Stanton, Ann Thompson and John Barton.

I really would welcome as many names as possible, from all the constituencies of the BSA, and for Members to think broadly about the areas of work in which excellence might occur. The Fellow may be drawn not only from academia or the professional theatre, but also from the realms of illustration, animation, applied theatre, youth theatre, community or visual arts, to name but a few. I greatly look forward to hearing your suggestions.

The closing date for Nominations is 6 December 2019.

Please send all nominations to the Chair of the Fellowship Committee – Eleanor Rycroft – via email to e.rycroft@bristol.ac.uk

With many thanks in anticipation to you all,
Eleanor