After Before Shakespeare The Before Shakespeare conference is over. But while the Before Shakespeare project continues, those of us who gathered together in sunny Roehampton at the end of August for four days of presentations and performances are left to contemplate life after Before Shakespeare. Like any good event, the Before Shakespeare conference crackled with … Continue reading CONFERENCE RESPONSE: After Before Shakespeare by Eoin Price
Month: August 2017
CONFERENCE Panel: Marlowe
by Kim Gilchrist The conference’s special panel on Christopher Marlowe offered a range of approaches to Marlowe’s plays, but all three highlighted themes of subjugation and violence, perhaps hinting at factors that made Marlowe’s plays so shocking and influential when first performed. Nicole Mennell’s paper, “Horsemanship and Governance in Tamburlaine the Great Parts I and … Continue reading CONFERENCE Panel: Marlowe
Go dare; or, how scholarship lost the plot
Warning: contains plot spoilers 'Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes, it's awful'. These lines were not written to describe the plays of John Lyly, but they would make an effective advertising slogan based on the scholarly consensus on his work. Michael Best was the first to identify the playwright's work as 'Lyly's static drama', an … Continue reading Go dare; or, how scholarship lost the plot
CONFERENCE Panel: Theatre History 3: Metre and Repertory
by Romola Nuttall Disclaimer: this post will be a grossly incomplete summary of a tremendously rich and engaging panel "Metre and Repertory", which was so full of fascinating facts and questions that I cannot do them justice here. Robert Stagg's 'Metre before Shakespeare', contested prevailing orthodoxy of Shakespeare as creator and chief innovator of blank … Continue reading CONFERENCE Panel: Theatre History 3: Metre and Repertory
CONFERENCE Panel: Circulating Stories
by Callan Davies Our fourth panel had a wonderful coherence to it, with all four papers complementing each other in fascinating and provocative ways. First up were two papers on the underappreciated and underdiscussed William Painter and his "play-fodder" (as it has sometimes been dismissed), The Palace of Pleasure (first printed 1566) from Mark Houlahan and … Continue reading CONFERENCE Panel: Circulating Stories
CONFERENCE Panel: Theatre History 2: Geographies and People
by Derek Dunne Theatre history isn’t what it used to be. After a stimulating opening plenary by William Ingram entitled ‘What We Talk About When We Talk About Theatre History’, the Before Shakespeare conference continued to challenge/re-negotiate/overturn/burn down everything we think we know about those simple things we call playhouses. The second panel took up … Continue reading CONFERENCE Panel: Theatre History 2: Geographies and People
CONFERENCE Panel: Theatre History 1: Texts and Places
by Kim Gilchrist The first panel of Before Shakespeare kicked off with four fantastic papers that set the tone and the agenda perfectly by opening up underexplored yet fundamental areas of the sixteenth-century performance industries. Tracey Hill’s paper, “The Theatrical City Revisited,” presented what Hill described as a “revisionist account of the role of the … Continue reading CONFERENCE Panel: Theatre History 1: Texts and Places
The Woman in the Moon onstage
John Lyly was the foremost literary figure during a period that saw the first permanent commercial theatres built in London. As Shakespeare's best-selling and most famous literary contemporary, it is crazy to think that the 2017 Dolphin's Back production in the Wanamaker will be the first time Lyly has appeared in a UK professional playhouse … Continue reading The Woman in the Moon onstage
Before Conference (and The Woman in the Moon)
Our conference is coming up later this month, and we’re looking forward to the range and diversity of papers, conversations, and performance work that will be descending upon South West London in what we’re all confident will be a rare weekend of British Bank Holiday sun. This short post reflects on some of the issues … Continue reading Before Conference (and The Woman in the Moon)
Lawsuits and Leases at Newington Butts Playhouse
Following Laurie Johnson's introduction to the area, we are thankful to Sally-Beth MacLean for some archival insight into Jerome Savage and the playhouse in our second feature on the Newington Butts Playhouse (with MS images courtesy of The National Archives and Canterbury Cathedral Archives)... *** The early playhouse at Newington Butts continues to elude new … Continue reading Lawsuits and Leases at Newington Butts Playhouse
Before Shakespeare 