A horse! a horse! My kingdom for a horse…
Theatre company Headlong has announced a UK tour of their new production of Richard III, which will visit the Bristol Old Vic, Alexandra Palace, Manchester HOME, the Oxford Playhouse and the Royal & Derngate in Northampton between 1 March and 25 May 2019. The production, directed by Headlong Associate Artist John Haidar, will star Tom Mothersdale. Look out for a review in Teaching Drama Summer 1. headlong.co.uk/productions/richard-iii
One fire burns out another's burning …
The American Shakespeare Theatre at its height
Stratford, Connecticut, is mourning the loss of a historic building after the American Shakespeare Theatre which had stood in the town since the 1950s burnt to the ground in the early hours of 13 January.
While the theatre had in fact been closed since 1989, efforts were underway to restore it to its former glory, with two state representatives introducing a bill last November requesting $1.5 million to renovate and reopen it. ‘For almost 30 years, one of the state's cultural crown jewels has sat dormant’, said State Representative Phil Young, ‘Funding the renaissance of the Shakespeare Festival Theater is an investment in the arts and the state's tourism industry.’
Among actors who appeared in the theatre in its heyday are Katharine Hepburn, Ed Asner, James Earl Jones, Hal Holbrook and Christopher Plummer.
Thou canst not then be false to any man …
© pandan Photography
Professor Sir David Eastwood (left) and Cllr. Ian Ward with the First Folio at the Library of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham and Birmingham City Council are collaborating on a £1 million project entitled ‘Everything to Everybody’ to revive the city's almost-forgotten Birmingham Shakespeare Memorial Library (BSML) - the first, oldest and largest Shakespeare collection in any public library in the world.
The project unites the Shakespeare archive with the George Dawson Collection (GDC) - a wealth of documents relating to the nonconformist preacher, lecturer and activist, who founded the Library as part of a pioneering ‘Civic Gospel’ which helped make 19th-century Birmingham the world's most progressive modern city.
Professor Sir David Eastwood has commented: ‘It's wonderful to be working together with Birmingham City Council to renew George Dawson's ambitious legacy of opening up Shakespeare and elite culture to absolutely everyone today. Dawson was a pioneering figure who helped to make Birmingham a real force in the vanguard of world culture. He was an inspiration for our founder Joseph Chamberlain, who established the University of Birmingham as England's first civic university in 1900.’
The Heritage Lottery Fund has given the partners £32,700 of development funding to help progress plans to apply for a full National Lottery grant. Their four-year project aims to revitalise Dawson's dream of creating a culture actively involving everyone in Birmingham. A comprehensive programme of working with History West Midlands, Birmingham Commonwealth Association, Culture Central, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and other organisations and communities across the city will culminate in a major exhibition and festival celebrating Birmingham's cultural ambition and innovation in the year of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.
The project builds on prestigious global partnerships with the Folger Shakespeare Library and the University of Minnesota (USA), the Universities of Queensland, Sydney and Melbourne, as well as the German Shakespeare Society, the world's oldest national Shakespeare society which honoured the opening of Birmingham's civic Shakespeare library in 1868. Regional collaborations have been launched with city communities such as Birmingham Central Mosque, Midlands’ Polish Community Association and Handsworth Ladies’ Shakespeare Society. It also identifies links with collections held in Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Birmingham Midland Institute, Cadbury Research Library, Birmingham Rep, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and the Shakespeare Institute Library.
Birmingham-born actor Adrian Lester OBE is backing the project and has commented: ‘Everything to Everybody is a great rallying cry for a more democratic culture and for Birmingham as the forgotten trailblazer of that important and inspiring dream. I was so proud to learn that Birmingham – my home city - is the home of what is not just the first great Shakespeare library in the world, but remains a uniquely democratic Shakespeare collection intended for the use and development of everyone across the city.’