British Shakespeare Association Biennial Conference 2005
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Programme : Panels - Seminars - Workshops
Workshop - Adventures in the Archive: Looking at productions
of A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Friday 2nd September 2005, 11.00am-12.30pm,
Bedson Teaching Centre LG35
with Sylvia Morris, Deputy Head of Library and RSC Librarian, and Karin Brown, Reader Services Librarian.
The aim of this workshop is to raise people’s awareness of the way in which theatre productions work and to increase enjoyment of live performance by introducing them to the kinds of evidence available at the Shakespeare Centre Library in Stratford-upon-Avon.
The leaders will introduce participants to the fascinating ways of rediscovering the details of Shakespeare’s plays in performance. Using examples drawn from the Royal Shakespeare Company productions of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from 1970, 1981, 1989 and 1999, the session will start with a presentation looking at the different types of theatrical records. This will be followed by a practical session during which attendees will get the opportunity to reconstruct moments from these productions using copies of archive material, with the guidance of the workshop leaders. These examples will include prompt books, photographs, reviews, production records and design material. The session will end with a discussion of findings.
It will be suitable for all levels of interest from the general public to postgraduate students, but may be especially useful for teachers of the Edexcel AS/Advanced Level GCE Drama and Theatre Studies, in which hands on research relating to the history of a production of the early modern period is required.
website: http://www.shakespeare.org.uk
