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Dark Arcadia and the wider Shakespeare Republic universe – Sally McLean

15th April 2025

Dark Arcadia and the wider Shakespeare Republic universe – Sally McLean

Dark Arcadia is the latest installment in the Shakespeare Republic universe. It is an online series taking Shakespeare’s characters and text as written and weaving them together to create a new story, set in a modern high school with a “touch of magic realism and a lot of food for thought”1. And it is the culmination of 10 years of my bringing short form Shakespeare to the screen. 

To better understand how Dark Arcadia came to be, we need to go back a decade to when my long-running digital series, Shakespeare Republic, was beginning to take form. 

It is April 2015, and we are preparing to film the first season of Shakespeare Republic with six actors: Alan Fletcher, Michala Banas, Ben Steel, Rowena Hutson, Billy Smedley and myself. I am also adapting, directing and producing. Originally conceived as “bite-sized Shakespeare”2, the series was intended to bring audiences to Shakespeare’s works who might not normally engage with the full plays, which included students, as well as actors and interested members of the general public. Why this focus? Because that was me before I attended drama school in London. Being dyslexic, I was not a fan of the Bard. All that changed with an excellent Shakespeare teacher and once I became a born-again Shakespearean, I wanted to help ease others into these works that so brilliantly explored and exposed the human experience.

The easiest and most effective way to do this I reasoned, was to present Shakespeare’s monologues and sonnets as stand-alone pieces or episodes, set in the 21st Century. And that has been the premise of the entire series from that day to this. It had a long gestation period. From the idea forming in the late 1990’s, which I enthusiastically discussed with my honorary patron for my production business, Sir Nigel Hawthorne, the first series finally sprang into being 20 years later with the advent of web series and a realization that this medium was the perfect vehicle for the concept. 

Season One set the tone for these adaptations: Hamlet as Media Advisor to a government minister, Juliet as one half of a same-sex couple in a Skype conversation, Phebe as an entitled Gen Y drunk texting, Macbeth as a politician about to metaphorically knife an opponent, a female Hamlet weary from the corporate cut and thrust and a performance of Sonnet 18 as a eulogy.

Season Two brought in more actors, such as Nadine Garner, Christopher Kirby, Dean Haglund, Phoebe Anne Taylor and others and expanded to 13 episodes. It featured Viola as an inner-city hipster, Jaques as a melancholic barfly, Katherina as an ambitious politician’s wife, Henry V as a member of a laser strike team – and everything in-between. And then 2020 arrived and in response to the global pandemic, Season Three of the series was born, subtitled “The Lockdown Chronicles”, placing Shakespeare’s characters in lockdowns with the tagline “Twenty-four souls, six cities – one shared experience of being human.”3 The cast expanded again to include actors from London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Los Angeles, New York and Melbourne, and grew to 24 episodes for that season. 

When I first began this original series, I wasn’t sure how my approach to Shakespeare would be received, particularly as I gender flip the characters regularly and lean into diversity in my casting – and am irreverent in how I present the characters. But the response to the work has been wonderfully positive and I have been fascinated with others’ responses on social media and in the press, as well as in academic circles over the years. The series has been variously described as everything from “a metaphorical gauntlet”4, to “palpably metamodern”5, to “a powerful reminder of the ecological lesson of interrelatedness”6, to (my personal favourite) “Shakespearean Pringles”7. I love that my and my team’s work has evoked such illuminating discussions, which has made me reconsider and re-lens my choices when adapting Shakespeare’s work in turn.

Over the years, the series has gone on to win multiple international awards, been taught at high schools and universities, discussed at academic conferences and in academic text books, been invited and included in the official collection of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (and named as an acquisition highlight in their 2018/2019 annual report8), and reached hundreds of thousands of viewers around the globe across several different platforms.

From Shakespeare Republic, the work expanded further. First to the short film Speaking Daggers, commissioned by Independent Schools Victoria here in Australia for their inaugural Arts Learning Festival at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI). Then Walking Shadows, the student version of Shakespeare Republic, commissioned by Howard Fine Acting Studio Australia for their graduating drama students, which has just released its third and final season online, and now; Dark Arcadia. Helming and adapting the equivalent of four feature films of Shakespeare screen content over this time meant that I had been living and breathing Shakespeare adaptation for a while and by 2023, I wanted to try something different.

Dark Arcadia was a passion project, much like the first season of Shakespeare Republic. I wanted to stretch my wings with Shakespeare adaptation and see if I could create a new world and new stories using his texts and characters. A Shakespearean Into The Woods, if you will. 

I was very lucky to be awarded grants from Creative Victoria, City of Melbourne and Creative Australia, and the British Shakespeare Association kindly awarded me a Small Events Grant to top up the budget. The remaining monies were crowdfunded via the Australian Cultural Fund and my production business’ Patreon Fund.

So, on a blustery Winter’s June day in 2023, myself and my team found ourselves standing in the Quad of Ormond College at Melbourne University surrounded by cast and crew, ready to begin filming this new adventure called Dark Arcadia. 

Dark Arcadia is a female-led story, dealing with issues that women and girls still face today and we had an extraordinary cast who answered the call. I always have parity with male to female cast numbers, often erring on the side of more female and female-presenting actors. In this series, we also had non-binary, trans, culturally diverse and disabled actors and they were all fabulous humans and very talented creatives. I feel blessed to have found such a generous, gifted group of actors to bring Shakespeare’s words to life in Dark Arcadia and am so thrilled that I can showcase the talent available in Melbourne in this way. Some had Shakespeare experience, many had none – all of them brought this world and his words to vibrant life under my direction and I will always be grateful to all of them.

We filmed the three episodes over three and a half days, which also included a performance of The Willow Song, set to new music written by Sass Pinci. I still don’t know how we did it. My crew were amazing at moving like a well-oiled machine and I am so grateful to all of them for enabling us to get through the schedule as efficiently as we did. I am especially grateful to my three fellow producers: Billy Smedley, Phoebe Anne Taylor and Sass Pinci who were with me in the trenches in front of and behind the camera and fourth producer, Christopher Kirby, for being on the end of a phone with support from another film set he was working on at the time. 

Post-production took just over six months, but, by February 2024, the edit was completed. The trailer for Dark Arcadia was finally released to the public on April 3, 2024, and the series released in full on April 28. 

Again, I didn’t know how it would be received. I had taken a range of different characters from seven different plays using Shakespeare’s text, as written, set them in the microcosm of an Australian high school where they interact with each other, despite being in different plays, explored the concepts of power, relationships, women’s rights, outrage culture and fake news, and gave it the tone of the modern equivalent of a Grimm’s fairytale. Hamlet as Claudio and Don Pedro’s best friend? Hero as part of the three witches’ girl gang? Lord and Lady M trying to depose Edward York as Principal because he propositions one of the young female teachers? It shouldn’t work. But somehow, it did. And we have been pleasantly surprised at the reception for the work, particularly among our filmmaking peers around the world.

Since it’s release, Dark Arcadia has been officially selected for 25 international film festivals, been nominated for 55 awards and won 15 awards to date9, as well as being named in the Top 10 web series globally for 2024 out of a field of 475 series produced that year10. And Dark Arcadia continues its merry way around the international festival circuit, with its next screening coming up as an official selection at the New Bedford Film Festival in Massachusetts, USA in mid-April 2025.

I am so grateful to the British Shakespeare Association for their support of Dark Arcadia. And in this tenth anniversary year for Shakespeare Republic and the expanded universe of projects, we are looking forward to highlighting Dark Arcadia and the BSA’s support again to our audiences and the wider public alongside all our other Shakespeare projects from 2015 to now. 

Will I play with the Bard’s works again in this way? I don’t know. The traditionalist in me wonders if I am being too cavalier with his work; if I have crossed a line. But it was so much fun playing with his characters and text like this. Knowing that Dark Arcadia has brought more people to Shakespeare’s plays, which we gleaned through audience feedback, means that I’ve also stayed true to the mission: making his work of interest to those who might not normally engage. So, who knows what the future holds? Shakespeare Republic Season Four beckons and ultimately, Shakespeare and his canon of work are robust and thriving, and more than able to endure a little, very respectful meddling on my part. 

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Works cited

1 ‘About the series’, Dark Arcadia official website, 18th April, 2024. Available at: https://darkarcadia.com/about-the-series/ [Accessed 17th February 2025]

2 McLean, S. ‘Byte-Size Shakespeare: The Irreverent Play of Shakespeare Republic’. Editors: Gerzic, M & Norrie, A. Playfulness in Shakespearean Adaptations (Routledge 2022), p. 115.

3 ‘About Season Three’, Shakespeare Republic official website, 17th February, 2021. Available at: https://shakespearerepublic.com/about-season-three/ [Accessed 19th February 2025]

4 Tambasco, T. ‘Review of Shakespeare Republic’. Borrowers And Lenders: The Journal of Shakespeare and Appropriation, Vol. 13 No. 2 (2020), Fall/Winter 2020. Available at: https://borrowers-ojs-azsu.tdl.org/borrowers/article/view/95/188 [Accessed 19th February 2025]

5 Broadribb, B. ‘Lockdown Shakespeare and the Metamodern Sensibility’, Editors: Allred, GK. Broadribb, B & Sullivan, E. Lockdown Shakespeare: New Evolutions in Performance and Adaptation (The Arden Shakespeare, Bloomsbury 2022), p. 57.

6 Garganourakis, J. ‘Review of Shakespeare Republic: #AllTheWebsAStage (The Lockdown Chronicles)’. Shakespeare Bulletin, Vol. 39 No. 2, 2021, p. 278. Available at Project MUSE, https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/shb.2021.0025 [Accessed 19th February 2025]

7 Benjamin Broadribb [@Ben_Broadribb]. (2021, April 11). Revisiting @incognitagal’s wonderful @ShakesRepublic #AllTheWebsAStage short films for my Lockdown Shakespeare collection chapter, and they really are like Shakespearean Pringles: once I press play, I just can’t stop!  I can’t wait to see what this project does next [Tweet]. X. https://x.com/Ben_Broadribb/status/1380919707163881485 [Accessed 19th February 2025]

8 Appendix 3: NFSA Acquisition highlights 2018-19, Australian Government Transparency Portal, 2019. Available at: https://www.transparency.gov.au/publications/communications-and-the-arts/national-film-and-sound-archive-of-australia/national-film-and-sound-archive-of-australia-annual-report-2018-19/section-four%3A-appendices/appendix-3%3A-acquisition-highlights-2018-19 [Accessed 22nd February 2025]

9 ‘Awards & Screenings’, Dark Arcadia official website, 29th April, 2024. Available at: https://darkarcadia.com/screenings/ [Accessed 18th February 2025]

10 ‘2024: Season 10!’, Web Series World Cup official website, December, 2024. Available at: https://wswc.info/2024-2 [Accessed 18th February 2025]

Header image courtesy of Sally McLean/Incognita Enterprises.

BSA 2025 Conference – Second round call for submissions now open!

11th January 2025

BSA 2025 Conference – Second round call for submissions now open!

Second round submissions are now open for the BSA 2025 Conference at the University of York!

The complex relationship between text and performance is uniquely felt in Shakespeare Studies, and has been continuously reconstituted and reframed. Meanwhile, academic study and practice (both professional and amateur) often run in parallel but separate streams – a phenomenon often reinforced by handbooks on how to ‘do’ Shakespeare. These advocate resisting ‘academic analysis’ in favour of ‘exercises and approaches that can aid the acting and directing process’, a position which risks placing the two into an antagonistic relationship. Yet despite this apparent impasse, explorations which move across and between the spheres of research, practice and pedagogy have demonstrated the rich potential of collaboration and sharing approaches to early modern drama. As Shakespeare and his contemporaries continue to be explored and reinvented on stage, screen and new media, we ask what new horizons might Shakespeare Studies look towards in performance and practice? What challenges, by placing practice and performance as a central focus, must we confront, problematise, or solve when working with Shakespeare and his contemporaries? How might we continue and develop productive conversations and collaborations between teaching, practice and research?

The full CfP and links to submit are available here!

BSA 2025 Conference – Call for submissions now open!

9th October 2024

BSA 2025 Conference – Call for Participation now open!

Practising Shakespeare: new collaborations, expanding horizon

Submissions are now open for the BSA 2025 Conference at the University of York!

The complex relationship between text and performance is uniquely felt in Shakespeare Studies, and has been continuously reconstituted and reframed. Meanwhile, academic study and practice (both professional and amateur) often run in parallel but separate streams – a phenomenon often reinforced by handbooks on how to ‘do’ Shakespeare. These advocate resisting ‘academic analysis’ in favour of ‘exercises and approaches that can aid the acting and directing process’, a position which risks placing the two into an antagonistic relationship. Yet despite this apparent impasse, explorations which move across and between the spheres of research, practice and pedagogy have demonstrated the rich potential of collaboration and sharing approaches to early modern drama. As Shakespeare and his contemporaries continue to be explored and reinvented on stage, screen and new media, we ask what new horizons might Shakespeare Studies look towards in performance and practice? What challenges, by placing practice and performance as a central focus, must we confront, problematise, or solve when working with Shakespeare and his contemporaries? How might we continue and develop productive conversations and collaborations between teaching, practice and research?

The full CfP and links to submit are available here: https://www.britishshakespeare.ws/call-for-participation-first-round/

Honorary Fellowships and Innovation Award Nominations now open 

3rd September 2024

The 2024 Awards Committee invites nominations for: 

  • up to two Honorary Fellowships recognising eminent individuals who have made major contributions to our understanding of Shakespeare through scholarship, education, and/or performance; and
  • an annual Innovation Award recognising an individual or organisation involved in Shakespearean studies, performance, and/or the cultural and creative industries that has substantially innovated engagement with and/or appreciation of Shakespeare and his works.

Each nomination should comprise a formal written proposal (250 words) addressing the criteria and the names of the proposer and seconder (both being current BSA members in good standing). The closing date for nominations is 20th October 2024. Nominations before this deadline should be submitted to the Chair of the Awards Committee, Brett Greatley-Hirsch, via email to b.d.greatleyhirsch@leeds.ac.uk.

World Shakespeare Congress Call for Submissions

20th August 2024


On behalf of the International Shakespeare Association.

Dear Shakespearian,

In case you don’t already know, the next World Shakespeare Congress is due to take place  in Verona, from 20th July to 26th July 2026.

I am glad to let you know that there is still time for you to propose a panel or seminar. The deadline is Sunday 15th September.

The theme of the Congress is ‘Planetary Shakespeares’ and you can read about it via the WSC 2026 webpage: https://www.wsc2026.org/

From there, a button, ‘Call for Submissions’, will take you through to a description of how to submit your proposal.

Yours sincerely,
Paul Edmondson.
ISA Secretary and Treasurer.

Daryl Chase: Shakespeare Subtitled

23rd July 2024

Film director and BSA member Daryl Chase shares his project Shakespeare Subtitled and the ‘what’, ‘how’, and ‘why’ of the project.

Shakespeare Subtitled is a passion project, the seed of which was sewn around fifteen or more years ago. 

‘How?’. ‘Why?’. More of that later. First the ‘What?’.

Shakespeare Subtitled is an ongoing series of filmed extracts designed to inspire, entertain and educate. Original language performances are complemented by modern language subtitles, providing a jumping-off point for further exploration of Shakespeare. The project encourages both conventional and unconventional approaches to Shakespeare’s work, from diverse casting to unusual locations. Experimentation and play are welcomed in order to discover new meanings.

Films can be watched with or without subtitles, depending on your reason for watching. This is because Shakespeare Subtitled is not only about subtitles and language, it’s about the process of filmmaking. Whether in the classroom or on a film set there’s a thrill in asking questions; what if we set this somewhere unusual? What if we cast against type? What does it do to the sentiment? Does it speak to modern issues?

Shakespeare Subtitled extends its filmmaking focus by also celebrating the incredible wealth of talent out there, both in front and behind the camera. From those just starting out, to established names, the project is open to all and collaboration is key.

As well as entertainment, Shakespeare Subtitled embraces education, offering workshops, supporting materials and other content. It also ranges from the creation of new films to the use of existing ones, and spans all age groups. With a background in social enterprise filmmaking, I am also interested in engaging with underrepresented demographics and alternative provisions.

The project has ambitions to apply these principles to long form adaptations of full plays, also featuring original language performances with modern language subtitles.

So… that’s the ‘What’. How about the ‘Why’ and ‘How’?

Growing up I had a fascination with film, (no doubt inspired by my dad watching endless rented VHSs). However, with no connection to the industry I would sit in the local library with Kemp’s International Film and Television Directory and note down company phone numbers. Returning home I would call them all asking for work experience – old skool! Finally, one agreed to take me on and I was hooked. I became a runner, an editor, I shot my own shorts, music videos and anything else I could point a camera at, until eventually I was lucky enough to make commercials and films for a range of brands. Despite this, I was always keen to work on a more personal project, something that embraced the joy of filmmaking, inspired by my love of just ‘making stuff’. Initially I toyed with the idea of monologues – regularly released films with a range of actors – but it felt like it was missing an edge. So instead it sat with me for years, like an ear worm.

Fast forward many (many!) years later, and I was fortunate enough to be offered the chance to direct a social enterprise adaptation of Macbeth. This was an incredible opportunity to work on a production that engaged with underrepresented demographics and socioeconomically challenged young people, giving them opportunities within the film industry. Having personally experienced the challenges of entering the industry, I was keen to help those facing far more obstacles than I ever did. But – and it was a big but – the prospect of adapting and directing Shakespeare filled me with fear. The last time I had engaged with such a text was for GCSEs, and I’d found it challenging then! Despite this I accepted, hiding my nerves as best as I could and adhering to the mindset that you need to do things that scare you as otherwise you aren’t pushing yourself. 

I got all the books I could, and began working hard on the text. Very quickly I felt like I did when I was back at school; struggling with the ‘words’, but too afraid to speak up. Whether it’s my own perception or not, there resurfaced an underlying expectation (this time within myself) to ‘understand’ the words, and a fear of the reactions of others if I admitted I didn’t. This time, older and supposedly wiser, I assessed the challenges in a different way. If I was asked to adapt a French, Spanish or German text I would be taught the language first, or be offered an initial translation. To me, the language of Shakespeare is similar, in that it is in some part a foreign language. I also then considered my own workplace experience and the foreign language films I watch… for those I immediately turn on the subtitles. I don’t assume the subtitles are word perfect translations, but combined with performance and visual language they help towards understanding. So, what if I could do the same with Shakespeare? Could language barrier solutions – subtitles – combine with performance to give me an initial, simple foothold upon which to build and explore.

It was then that I remembered the ‘monologues’ idea. Shakespeare is obviously filled with incredible monologues, sonnets, soliloquies and all manner of predominantly single character dialogues. And so the fledgling concept of Shakespeare Subtitled began.

Armed with the footage from Macbeth, I secretly began playing with modern language subtitles. Coincidentally, there were increasing press articles around subtitling – a higher percentage of younger viewers were using them as a matter of course (Youngs, 2021; Kelly, 2022) , plus Stranger Things was getting notoriety for embracing highly descriptive language (Bitran, 2022). This inspired my exploration further, and as I added the subtitles I found myself understanding scenes I hadn’t before. Performance, location, costume and other elements had already brought new meaning to the text, but modern words added even more understanding for me. They were not definitive ‘translations’, but they were a starting point for personal exploration.

Wanting to test the concept further, I shot some extracts specifically for the project, enlisting a few extremely generous and highly talented actors and friends. Each piece proved to be a joy to create… and with ‘joy’ being one of the motivations for starting a personal project in the first place, this was a success for me. They came alive, forcing me to dig deeper into the text, collaborate and experiment. Interestingly, in a recent (and brilliant), BSA teach meet, run by the fantastic Karen McGivern (BSA Trustee and Chair of Education Committee), I heard this concept summed up perfectly by Jennifer Kitchen when she quoted Gibson: “Shakespeare wrote his plays for performance and… his scripts are completed by enactment of some kind” (Gibson, 2016, p. viii). I couldn’t agree more. Traditional film scripts can also be hard to read. Bereft of detail, they are blueprints, stripped back to their bare bones. Practitioners then add the additional layers needed to come alive. Shakespeare is no different. This also speaks to the previously mentioned fact that these films and the project itself operate beyond the subtitles and language focus. Although these are a key creative elements, I am also inspired and excited by the questions filmmaking asks of text, and how different meanings can be offered via imagery and performance.

With these test extracts in tow, I contacted Maria Shmygol (Joint Chair of the BSA), who I’d met through the campaign to complete Macbeth. I was keen to assess if what I was doing had any merit in the eyes of those who really knew Shakespeare. Maria kindly didn’t laugh me out of the room and just as helpful as she had been on Macbeth, this time putting me in contact with Karen McGivern, who in turn, not only generously invited me to the BSA Teach Meets, but also shared her thoughts on the project. Karen opened my eyes to the usefulness of my filmmaking background, and that it shouldn’t be taken for granted regarding the skills that could be passed on to others and the way it gives value to the project, on a par with the language focus. What is most inspiring is that the approach Shakespeare Subtitled takes seems to have some similarities to the processes others have taken in classrooms, embracing a more active approach to the teaching of Shakespeare. I believe I would have benefitted more when I was young had there been more active ways to explore Shakespeare, combining it with drama, filmmaking, photography and other disciplines to bring it to life.

Shakespeare Subtitled was launched recently, with help from the BSA Small Grant Fund, for which I am hugely grateful. I am under no illusion that it could be a ‘Marmite’ project. Am I suggesting I know better by offering subtitles? I’m no Shakespeare expert so no. Am I trying to ‘dumb down’ the language? I believe not, because by celebrating the original language audibly, alongside the modern language visually, I’m avoiding pure simplification. Combining this with the idea that these films are not focused on language alone, the results are an exciting exploration of text resulting in a broad range of interpretations. Current examples, released and unreleased, include Lear in a Launderette, enduring a storm of the mind (more manageable to capture than a storm on a heath!); Brutus lurking behind the scenes of Caesar’s 1980s campaign trail; Petruchio hinting at domestic abuse; and a female Hamlet drinking from a can on a beach. All of these exist from collaborative questioning of the text. Whether the subtitles are then written in the contemporary English or in modern slang, the films themselves stand alone and focus on the joy of ‘making’, as originally intended. The project has exciting and wide-reaching ambitions and is open to any conversations regarding involvement in the exciting journey ahead.

Shakespeare Subtitled can be found on the following platforms, please share, follow, subscribe, and like. 

Wesbite: www.shakespearesubtitled.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shakespearesubtitled/

Twitter/X: https://x.com/shakespearesubs

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shakespearesubtitled

Thanks

I would like to thank the BSA for their fantastic support, in particular Maria Shmygol for offering thoughts, support and kindly connecting me to Karen McGivern, to whom I also owe a huge thanks. I’m grateful for your opinions and welcoming me into the Teach Meets, both of which will no doubt continue to help shape the project. I would also like to thank all the attendees I’ve met in the sessions, whose openness about their own work has been invaluable. I highly recommend attending the Teach Meets, whether in education or not. They are a window into engagement practices that are enlightening whatever your connection to Shakespeare. I would also like to thank Kat Hipkiss for making sense of the sludge of words I sent for this piece. Lastly, thanks to anyone who has been involved in the project and films until now, you have made it great, and most importantly you have made it a joy to be part of.

Works Cited

Bitran, T. (2022) ‘Meet the Wordsmiths Behind the Genius ‘Stranger Things’ Season 4 Subtitles’, Tudum by Netflix, 8th July. Available at: https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/stranger-things-season-4-captions [Accessed 22nd July 2024]

Kelly, G. (2022) ‘How Generation Z became obsessed with subtitles’, The Telegraph, 24th July. Available at: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/how-generation-z-became-obsessed-subtitles/ [Accessed 22nd July 2024]

Youngs, I. (2021) ‘Young viewers prefer TV subtitles, research suggests’, BBC, 15th November. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-59259964 [Accessed 22nd July 2024]

Header image courtesy of Daryl Chase.

Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies – CFP: Page, Performance, and Culture

6th March 2024

Sheffield Centre for Early Modern Studies is hosting a one-day colloquium (on the 12th June 2024) intended to bring together postgraduate students working on Shakespeare and early modern drama.

They welcome proposals for 20-minute research papers, 5-minute lightning talks and creative writing pieces.

Papers may consider, but are not limited to:

  • Shakespearean adaptation / appropriation / translation (including dramatic, musical and fictional adaptations)
  • Shakespeare/early modern drama in (early modern/modern-day) performance
  • Early modern theatre practices
  • Materiality: costuming, props, playing spaces, print culture
  • Dramatic genres/form
  • New perspectives on early modern drama / drama and critical theory
  • Gender and sexuality
  • Race and colonisation
  • Disability and embodiment
  • Early modern drama and society: politics, economics, religion, environment, colonisation
  • Drama and early modern thought: religion, science, historiography

Please see https://scems.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/blog/cfp-page-performance-and-culture for the CFP and submission instructions.

BSA 2024 Conference Seminar and Panel Presentation Deadline Extended!

13th February 2024

Due to some technical issues with the enrolment process, the seminar and panel enrolment deadline has been extended until the 29th February.

Full details and instructions are available here: 
https://www.britishshakespeare.ws/bsa-2024-conference-seminar-enrolment-and-cfp/

If you have any issues with seminar or panel enrolment, please contact webmaster@britishshakespeare.ws

Similarly, if you have any issues with renewing your membership to the BSA, please contact membership@britishshakespeare.ws and webmaster@britishshakespeare.ws

Honorary Fellowships and Innovation Award Nominations open

15th September 2023

The 2023 Awards Committee invites nominations for:

  • up to two Honorary Fellowships recognising eminent individuals who have made major contributions to our understanding of Shakespeare through scholarship, education, and/or performance; and
  • an annual Innovation Award recognising an individual or organisation involved in Shakespearean studies, performance, and/or the cultural and creative industries that has substantially innovated engagement with and/or appreciation of Shakespeare and his works.

Each nomination should comprise a formal written proposal (200–500 words) addressing the criteria and the names of the proposer and seconder (both being current BSA members in good standing).

The closing date for nominations is 20th October 2023. Nominations before this deadline should be submitted to the Chair of the Awards Committee, Brett Greatley-Hirsch, via email to b.d.greatleyhirsch@leeds.ac.uk.

“Trophy II.” by Patrick Gage is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

CFP for LINGUACULTURE: In Honorem Professor Michael Hattaway

7th April 2022

LINGUACULTURE, vol. 14, no. 1, June 2023


Issue editors: Professor Nicoleta Cinpoes (n.cinpoes@worc.ac.uk),Professor Alison Findlay (a.g.findlay@lancaster.ac.uk), Professor Peter Smith (peter.smith@ntu.ac.uk) and Veronica Popescu (journal@linguaculture.ro)

For this special issue, In Honorem Professor Michael Hattaway, we welcome original contributions connected to Professor Hattaway’s research interests, particularly Shakespeare Studies and Renaissance Studies, as a means to honour his contribution to the field and his influence on young researchers and colleagues in his long career as a Shakespearean scholar. We are especially interested in papers in the following areas:

  • Shakespeare’s history plays
  • Shakespeare’s plays in performance
  • cinematic Shakespeare
  • foreign Shakespeare
  • humanism and posthumanism in Shakespeare studies
  • Shakespeare scholarship during the pandemic

Contributions (4,000 to 7,000 words) to be published in the June 2023 issue are expected by 15 December, 2022 and they should not have been published or submitted for publication elsewhere. All submissions will go through a blind peer review process and notification of acceptance will be sent by 15 March, 2023.

LINGUACULTURE is currently indexed by ERIHPLUS and DOAJ.

Timeline
Abstracts & short bio to be sent to journal@linguaculture.ro: 1 September 2022
Submission of manuscripts: 15 December, 2022
Review period: 15 December, 2022 – 15 March, 2023
Submission of final articles: 15 May, 2023
Issue published online: 30 June, 2023

Please consult our Instructions for Authors page for further information about submissions and additional requirements.

Use the Submissions page to send us your contributions.

This call for papers is also available as a PDF.

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