What do we see when we look at early modern plays in contemporary theatre? Well, this is a very UK-based, and probably London-based answer, but we generally see a lot of white, able-bodied cis men in plays about white, able-bodied cis men; we generally see the same 10-15 plays of the 400 or so early … Continue reading Galatea, BritGrad and diverse alarums
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Women in the Moons
Last year I saw Dolphin's Back's Woman in the Moon; last night I saw Edward's Boy's Woman in the Moon. This is presumably the first time in history anyone has been able to see multiple Women in the Moons, and we're very grateful to both companies for sharing their work with us on this play. It's … Continue reading Women in the Moons
The Sound of Lyly: Galatea Interview
We recently had a chance to interview Vicky Abbott, the musical lead on Emma Frankland's Galatea project, and we asked her what it was like writing music for a sixteenth-century play in a modern production. We feature here some of Vicky's brilliant recordings (©Vicky Abbott) along with choreographed responses to songs that have been crucial … Continue reading The Sound of Lyly: Galatea Interview
Galatea in Cornwall: Finding Gods in Truro
For this week's R&D workshops, Emma Frankland and Mydd Pharo are joined by Kellan Frankland, Krishna Istha, Mzz Kimberley, and Nadia Nadarajah in and around Truro (based at the Hall of Cornwall, thanks to their support) for a week looking at Galatea's Gods and their divine interactions: Neptune, Venus, her son Cupid, and Diana and … Continue reading Galatea in Cornwall: Finding Gods in Truro
Getting Mortal in St Austell: Galatea in Cornwall
We are joining Emma Frankland and her crew of artists and players for the next few days. Emma is spending this week and next week with two groups of artists to explore in more detail some of the themes and scenes of John Lyly's Galatea, building on research and development workshops from last August. The … Continue reading Getting Mortal in St Austell: Galatea in Cornwall
Venus’s Palaces
She’s got it, Yeah baby, she’s got it ---Shocking Blue For 1570s and 1580s theatregoers, love was all around. One of the defining characteristics of the earliest surviving commercial plays is the predominance of the character Venus or her allegorical equivalent, Love. “Theaters and curtaines Venus pallaces,” reads a marginal note in Philip Stubbes’s The … Continue reading Venus’s Palaces
Birthday Post: A Year of Before Shakespeare
We launched our website last year, on the date of Shakespeare’s 400th anniversary, with an introduction to the project and something of a provocation in Andy’s post about putting the Shhhh into Shakespeare.... The comments that followed have been matched by recent posts that have engendered debate and discussion amongst readers, including the creation by … Continue reading Birthday Post: A Year of Before Shakespeare
keywords for collaboration
by Liz Oakley-Brown curiosity 13 Jul 2016 10:22 Between Shakespeare Dear Andy, I'm in town for London leg of W[orld] S[hakespeare] C[ongress]. Any chance I could attend am workshop activity on August 5th? In haste, Liz (Oakley-Brown) exploration Fri 29/07/2016 14:22 into the woods with Galatea Dear Galatea workshop attenders, Thank you … Continue reading keywords for collaboration
Galatea Workshop Response: Hester Bradley
We are very pleased to host Hester Bradley's response to the Galatea workshops hosted at the Jerwood Space in August this year. Hester is a PhD student at Oxford Brookes, whose work explores what representations of the moon by John Lyly and William Shakespeare can reveal about contemporary ideas of female identity and personhood. *** I attended … Continue reading Galatea Workshop Response: Hester Bradley
Galatea Workshops: Let us into the grove
Yesterday, we took some of the scenes we'd been working on to the park. These photos show moments throughout the play surrounding the lovers, Galatea and Phillida:
