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Shakespeare on the Road

mapOn Independence Day, 4 July, Paul Prescott (Associate Professor, Department of English at Warwick) and Paul Edmondson (Head of Research and Knowledge, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust) embarked on an epic road trip all around North America in a unique project titled 'Shakespeare on the Road'.

The collaboration between Warwick, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and and Misfit Inc aims to capture a comprehensive picture of Shakespeare’s place in contemporary American culture through the voices of artists and audiences across the continent, telling the story of the festivals in their own words for the first time. It was a reverse pilgrimage, celebrating the USA’s astonishing range of Shakespearean performance in classic road trip / travel writing fashion online.

Over the sixty days Paul and Paul visited fourteen Shakespeare festivals across North America travelling some 10000 miles across 25 states and part of Canada. You can hear an interview about their journey here.

Paul Prescott is also the Associate Director for Global Shakespeare the research and teaching collaboration with Queen Mary University of London. For more details visit the Global Shakespeare website.

Acting Against the Grain: Non-traditional Shakespeare

To mark the 450th anniversary of Shakespeare's birth and the completion of 'Shakespeare on the Road' a free multimedia event Acting Against the Grain will be held in Stratford-upon-Avon on 16 November, 5.30-7.30pm.

logoWarwick and the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust are bringing together actors and academics from England and the USA who have worked ‘against the grain’: against racial and gender stereotypes, against ingrained habits of casting, and against cultural expectations, to talk about what Shakespeare’s stories and language can tell us about our lives.

With multimedia displays and live debate – this event will be a great way to celebrate Shakespeare’s enduring resonance for a wide variety of people and communities and the 450th anniversary of his birth in his hometown.

Participants will include Kevin Asselin (Montana Shakespeare in the Parks), Nicholas Bailey (National Theatre, Eastenders), Debra Ann Byrd (Harlem Shakespeare Festival), Paul Edmondson (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust), Ellen Geer (Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, California), Lisa Wolpe (Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company) and Paul Prescott( University of Warwick).