Shakespeare Diva : MyBlogHer Profile

When Peter Hall was appointed Artistic Director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in 1960, one of his first efforts to accomplish his goal of “expressing Shakespeare’s intentions in terms that modern audiences could understand”, was to change the name and identity of the organisation: The title Royal Shakespeare Company helps us…it’s got everything in it except God! And it is a good commercial title, but it also has an enormous danger. It makes us sound antique, square, institutional, conservative, traditional...We are none of these things. We want to run a popular theatre.  Read more >

The title of my popular, NYU undergraduate seminar, “American Shakespeare”, always raised a few eyebrows. “It’s a survey of Shakespeare in America,” I explained to a stuffy, Oxbridge colleague. “But,” he sniffed, “Shakespeare was never in America.” “Indeed,” I replied, “but he is very much with us now.” My seminar examined what Ralph Waldo Emerson termed the “Shakespearization” of America. I had no idea where this exploration might lead. And, certainly never imagined I would find myself re-discovering Shakespeare in a tiny, fishing village in southern Alaska.  Read more >