(Course descriptions adapted from the Shakespeare Institute website) |
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The Shakespeare Institute Stratford-upon-Avon, UK |
MA "Shakespeare and Theatre" Modules and Coursework August, 2005 - present.... |
Shakespeare and Theatre An innovative part-time modular course that enables students to focus on how Shakespeare's plays work in performance. It encourages an historical approach to interpretation and styles of presentation and it promotes the value of close reading as the basis for evaluating the plays on the page, stage and screeen. The program allows access to the unique Shakspearean resources of the Shakespeare Institute Library, The Library of the Shakespeare Centre that curates the archives of the RSC, and the Royal Shakespeare company. |
The Modules |
Shakespeare's Theatre |
Shakespeare's Craftsmanship |
Acting & Directing Shakespeare |
The Text of Shakespeare |
This is the core module that includes three components. The first is a close reading of the text that will lead to a consideration of the theatrical function and distinctive qualities of Shakespeare's language. The second is a study of Elizabethan and early Jacobean stages and performance; and the third is an extension of the historical perspective, including Shakespeare's Medieval inheritance that informs the inquiry into the contemporary and continuing theatrical life of his plays. |
This module develops a critical awareness of the textual foundations of Shakespeare's plays. Topics covered include: The relationship between a modern edition of a play and the earliest printed text, the nature of the printing process that first made the plays available to readers of books, the characteristics of Shakespeare's dramatic composition, the treatment of the text in the theatre (including censorship, adaptation and revision), and Shakespeare as a collaborator. |
This module focuses on the construction of Shakespeare's plays and considers the manipulation of source material and genre, the structuring of the dramatic narrative and the use of language for dramatic function and effect, stagecraft and staging difficulties and challenges in contemporary and modern productions. |
This module considers trends in acting and directing Shakespeare from the Restoration to the present day, and exploits the Stratford archives to undertake studies of individual actors and directors from the eighteenth century onward. Subjects of study might include David Garrick, Henry Irving and Ellen Terry, Lawrence Olivier, John Barton, Peter Brook or Sam Mendes. There will be opportunities to analyze and interpret primary evidence and to consider the cultural contexts of performance. |
(Course descriptions adapted from the Shakespeare Institute website) |
Taken at Stratford, August 2005 - completed November 2005 |
Taken Distance Learning, Spring 2006 - completed November 2006 |
Taking Distance Learning, Fall/Winter 2006 - completed March 2007 |
Taken at Stratford, August 2007 - completed November 2007 |
(Click on titles to read full essays.) |
