Galatea (c.1584) enjoyed some more research and development with actors in August 2021, as it heads towards a production in collaboration with Wildworks, when director Emma Frankland gathered theatremakers at the 101 Outdoor Creation Space (thanks to their seed funding). This post brings together a series of A Bit Lit videos with performers to discuss … Continue reading Galatea 101: Performing John Lyly in the 21st Century
early modern
Repertory and Reputation at the Curtain
Adeola Ogunbadewa is a research intern at the School of English at the University of Kent, where she is going into her final year reading for a BA in Spanish and Religious Studies. She has been working on a project to develop a timeline of play events and performances at the Curtain playhouse. The Curtain, in … Continue reading Repertory and Reputation at the Curtain
Ruff Play with Shakespeare: a new video series
Wrestling Resurgence, @RobBrazierPhoto This weekend would have seen our first workshop on wrestling, gender and entertainment: see below for more details. We will run our workshop in whenever and whatever the future might turn out to be, but in the meantime, our related project A Bit Lit has begun a new film series on wrestling, … Continue reading Ruff Play with Shakespeare: a new video series
Featured
Ruff Play with Shakespeare: combat, gender and entertainment
Wrestling Resurgence, @RobBrazierPhoto To book, please click here. Before Shakespeare and Engendering the Stage are delighted to announce our next performance workshop, focusing on combat as entertainment—in both Shakespeare’s time and today. Combat, acrobatics and feats of strength were everywhere in the early modern period: wrestling happened on the streets, in the countryside and in plays … Continue reading Ruff Play with Shakespeare: combat, gender and entertainment
The Before Shakespeare Guide to [The] Theatre Etiquette
[Come and behave (well?) with these tips in mind at our upcoming event on the Curtain playhouse at hackney House on 21 July.] Just as writers in twenty-first century New York have opinions on how other people should behave in theatre spaces, so early modern London has its fair share of advice to spectators. Whether … Continue reading The Before Shakespeare Guide to [The] Theatre Etiquette
The Man with the Golden Pen
We're very pleased to present a guest post by Derek Dunne on a fascinating event at the Blackfriars... *** Do you know who the best writer of Elizabethan London was? Not the most prolific, or the most poetic, or the most popular, but simply the best writer. This is a contentious question among scholars, but … Continue reading The Man with the Golden Pen
Generic excitement
Give ear, I pray you, and mark it attentively, for you shall hear the tenor of a strange and tragical comedy. Anthony Munday, Zelauto (1580) Genre: what is it, what does it mean, and how does it organise our experiences in the theatre, in a book or in our scholarship? These are questions about stories, … Continue reading Generic excitement
“Specially youthe”: Regulating London “Venues”
Social media has reacted with frustration and resentment at the news this week that one of London’s most famous nightclubs, Fabric, has had its licence revoked (#fabricreview). While I will avoid being overtly political, here, the closure of the nightclub inevitably prompts questions over responsibility for regulating such venues, the legitimacy of closing a popular … Continue reading “Specially youthe”: Regulating London “Venues”
Before Shakespeare in Performance
"When in Toledo there I studied, It was my chance to write a tragedy - See here my lords - [He shows them a book] Which long forgot, I found this other day. Now would your lordships favour me so much As but to grace me with your acting it - I mean each one … Continue reading Before Shakespeare in Performance
Early Thoughts on the Archives
…and now for something completely different. After last week’s performance workshops, this post moves us from the rehearsal space back to the library; I have been revisiting archival documents associated with the rise of the commercial playhouses and getting a clearer sense of the context that surrounds extant references, restrictions, and correspondence about playing. The … Continue reading Early Thoughts on the Archives
Before Shakespeare 