"Our Will" Shakespeare's Coming Home
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lyra
Mar 20, 2007, 4:34:55 PM3/20/07
to hlas-i...@googlegroups.com
An interesting story,
which needs discussing further -
the entire Shakespeare/Knowsley/Derby/Catholic question.
____________________________________________________
(quote, excerpts)
"Our Will" Shakespeare's Coming Home
The people of Knowsley are being invited to get to know one of their borough
's most famous former residents, William Shakespeare.
Under the direction of leading TV and theatre director, David Thacker,
residents will be given the chance to get involved in practical drama
workshops on Shakespeare as part of the "Our Will" project across the
borough.
The "Our Will" project aims to attract everyone in the borough - from the
youngest citizen to the eldest - to give them the unique opportunity of
working on Shakespeare with an international director.
William Shakespeare spent time in the area, staying with the Stanley family,
the Earls of Derby at Knowsley Hall - where historians believe A Midsummer
Nights Dream was premiered at a wedding reception.
David Thacker will work with 600 Knowsley Secondary School pupils, as part
of their Drama, English and Media Studies lessons, providing them with a
fantastic chance to work with an award-winning director. Meanwhile, every
child from years one to six in the Knowsley Southern collaborative of
primary schools will receive a one hour workshop alongside professional
creative practitioners on themes including Putting the Shake Back Into
Shakespeare - a contemporary dance session exploring the key themes in The
Tempest.
In addition, open sessions for all Knowsley's residents will take place from
7-9.30pm at community centres across the borough from Monday to Thursday,
26-29th March).
(from the webpage
<http://aboutknowsley.typepad.com/news/2007/03/our_will_shakes.html > )
--
lyra
which needs discussing further -
the entire Shakespeare/Knowsley/Derby/Catholic question.
____________________________________________________
(quote, excerpts)
"Our Will" Shakespeare's Coming Home
The people of Knowsley are being invited to get to know one of their borough
's most famous former residents, William Shakespeare.
Under the direction of leading TV and theatre director, David Thacker,
residents will be given the chance to get involved in practical drama
workshops on Shakespeare as part of the "Our Will" project across the
borough.
The "Our Will" project aims to attract everyone in the borough - from the
youngest citizen to the eldest - to give them the unique opportunity of
working on Shakespeare with an international director.
William Shakespeare spent time in the area, staying with the Stanley family,
the Earls of Derby at Knowsley Hall - where historians believe A Midsummer
Nights Dream was premiered at a wedding reception.
David Thacker will work with 600 Knowsley Secondary School pupils, as part
of their Drama, English and Media Studies lessons, providing them with a
fantastic chance to work with an award-winning director. Meanwhile, every
child from years one to six in the Knowsley Southern collaborative of
primary schools will receive a one hour workshop alongside professional
creative practitioners on themes including Putting the Shake Back Into
Shakespeare - a contemporary dance session exploring the key themes in The
Tempest.
In addition, open sessions for all Knowsley's residents will take place from
7-9.30pm at community centres across the borough from Monday to Thursday,
26-29th March).
(from the webpage
<http://aboutknowsley.typepad.com/news/2007/03/our_will_shakes.html > )
--
lyra
lyra
Mar 27, 2007, 2:59:17 PM3/27/07
to hlas-i...@googlegroups.com, shakespeare_ideas_and_discussions
____________________________
(quote, excerpts)
________________
Shakespeare's Globe goes North
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 26/03/2007
The little Merseyside town of Prescot is hoping to exploit its
Shakespeare connections and build a replica theatre of its own, writes
Maureen Paton
At first glance, the faded post-industrial town of Prescot on
Merseyside does not seem the most likely candidate to excite the
passions of
a prominent Shakespearean academic,
an award-winning theatre director and one of the country's most
popular actresses.
____________________________________________________________________
Big plans for Prescot
David Thacker and his team have big plans for little Prescot
Yet not for nothing is this theatre director, David Thacker, well
known in the arts world for his terrier-like tenacity.
...it's possible to see just how this tiny Lancashire town (adult
population: 32,327) could regenerate itself as the missing Northern
link of the Shakespeare industry in three years' time.
In short, humble little Prescot would become the epicentre of a
culture-quake.
For Thacker's projected indoor Cockpit Theatre of the North would
rival the iconic outdoor Globe Theatre on London's South Bank, with a
planned opening in 2010.
By trading on William Shakespeare's Lancastrian connections...
Audacious yet historically logical according to the latest research,
the scheme has come about through the enduring friendship of two
Shakespeare enthusiasts.
Professor Richard Wilson of Cardiff University's English Department
and Thacker, former artistic director of the Young Vic and the late
Arthur Miller's favourite stage director, were undergraduates together
at York University 35 years ago, when Thacker would direct Wilson in
productions.
Now they have forged a partnership as well by setting up the
Shakespeare North Trust, of which Thacker is executive director, in
conjunction with Liverpool's John Moores University - whose English
Department head, Dr Elspeth Graham, has played a key part in the
research - and Knowsley Council, the borough in which Prescot sits.
...its recreation of an historic theatre in the shape of a double
octagon...
As Thacker argues: "We believe Shakespeare in the North needs a
practical and symbolic representation; it's the only part of his
history that is undeveloped."
"...not just for what it can bring to the people of Knowsley but for
all those around the world who love William Shakespeare"
The importance of Prescot comes down to the surprising fact that the
first purpose-built indoor theatre in Britain, which also happened to
be the only Elizabethan theatre outside London, was erected there in
the late 1590s
Simply known as The Playhouse, it was built by the tenant of the
town's manor house, Richard Harrington, who was closely connected to
William Stanley, sixth Earl of Derby and a leading theatre patron.
It would also be sited just a few steps away from the street where the
Shakespearean actor John Philip Kemble was born in 1757, Prescot's
other claim to dramatic fame.
_____________________________________________________________________________
"I always thought it was amusing, the cockpit of Blair and Brown on
the site of the original Cockpit-in-Court," says the mischievous Helm,
who was much influenced in his choice by a quote from theatre
historian and Shakespeare's Globe committee member Glynn Wickham's
book Early English Stages Volume 2 Part 2 about the Cockpit-in-Court
being a better candidate for recreation than the Globe itself.
Helm can't resist pointing out that Shakespeare himself could also be
said to have sanctioned the project, eerily enough, with a reference
by the Chorus in Henry V that linked the Cockpit with the Globe ("this
wooden O") in consecutive sentences.
________________________________________________________________________________
The playwright's connections with the Knowsley region belong to his
pre-London "lost years" in the late 1570s and 1580s, possibly in the
service of wealthy crypto-Catholic Lancashire families, including the
Hoghtons, the Heskeths and the Stanleys (the family of the Earls of
Derby).
There is evidence that some of his earliest works, such as Richard III
and Love's Labour's Lost, were first staged at Prescot or nearby
Knowsley Hall.
"I don't want to emphasise the Da Vinci Code conspiracy side of it,"
says Professor Wilson dramatically, "but there's a big theatre
tradition in Lancashire because, as leading opponents of Elizabeth's
Protestant regime, these great Catholic houses kept players for their
own propaganda purposes."
The present Earl of Derby, a good friend of Prince Charles, has become
the patron of Shakespeare North; and the hope is that the Prince will
get behind the project if the bid succeeds.
They have some grounds for optimism: according to Wilson, the Prince
has visited Gdansk in Poland eight times to witness the rebuilding of
its 1604 Royal Court Theatre that was partly designed by the globe-
trotting Robert Browne, one of the Elizabethan players who performed
at Knowsley.
Yet there is no reason why two such destination theatres should not co-
exist at opposite ends of the country. In fact Thacker and Co hope
that the Cockpit would be a twin to the Globe as well as a rival
attraction, with the Globe players spending winter months on the
indoor Prescot stage before performing their summer season al fresco
on the South Bank.
(read the article at
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/03/26/btglobe126.xml >
)
______________________________________________________________________
--
lyra
(quote, excerpts)
________________
Shakespeare's Globe goes North
Last Updated: 12:01am BST 26/03/2007
The little Merseyside town of Prescot is hoping to exploit its
Shakespeare connections and build a replica theatre of its own, writes
Maureen Paton
At first glance, the faded post-industrial town of Prescot on
Merseyside does not seem the most likely candidate to excite the
passions of
a prominent Shakespearean academic,
an award-winning theatre director and one of the country's most
popular actresses.
____________________________________________________________________
Big plans for Prescot
David Thacker and his team have big plans for little Prescot
Yet not for nothing is this theatre director, David Thacker, well
known in the arts world for his terrier-like tenacity.
...it's possible to see just how this tiny Lancashire town (adult
population: 32,327) could regenerate itself as the missing Northern
link of the Shakespeare industry in three years' time.
In short, humble little Prescot would become the epicentre of a
culture-quake.
For Thacker's projected indoor Cockpit Theatre of the North would
rival the iconic outdoor Globe Theatre on London's South Bank, with a
planned opening in 2010.
By trading on William Shakespeare's Lancastrian connections...
Audacious yet historically logical according to the latest research,
the scheme has come about through the enduring friendship of two
Shakespeare enthusiasts.
Professor Richard Wilson of Cardiff University's English Department
and Thacker, former artistic director of the Young Vic and the late
Arthur Miller's favourite stage director, were undergraduates together
at York University 35 years ago, when Thacker would direct Wilson in
productions.
Now they have forged a partnership as well by setting up the
Shakespeare North Trust, of which Thacker is executive director, in
conjunction with Liverpool's John Moores University - whose English
Department head, Dr Elspeth Graham, has played a key part in the
research - and Knowsley Council, the borough in which Prescot sits.
...its recreation of an historic theatre in the shape of a double
octagon...
As Thacker argues: "We believe Shakespeare in the North needs a
practical and symbolic representation; it's the only part of his
history that is undeveloped."
"...not just for what it can bring to the people of Knowsley but for
all those around the world who love William Shakespeare"
The importance of Prescot comes down to the surprising fact that the
first purpose-built indoor theatre in Britain, which also happened to
be the only Elizabethan theatre outside London, was erected there in
the late 1590s
Simply known as The Playhouse, it was built by the tenant of the
town's manor house, Richard Harrington, who was closely connected to
William Stanley, sixth Earl of Derby and a leading theatre patron.
It would also be sited just a few steps away from the street where the
Shakespearean actor John Philip Kemble was born in 1757, Prescot's
other claim to dramatic fame.
_____________________________________________________________________________
"I always thought it was amusing, the cockpit of Blair and Brown on
the site of the original Cockpit-in-Court," says the mischievous Helm,
who was much influenced in his choice by a quote from theatre
historian and Shakespeare's Globe committee member Glynn Wickham's
book Early English Stages Volume 2 Part 2 about the Cockpit-in-Court
being a better candidate for recreation than the Globe itself.
Helm can't resist pointing out that Shakespeare himself could also be
said to have sanctioned the project, eerily enough, with a reference
by the Chorus in Henry V that linked the Cockpit with the Globe ("this
wooden O") in consecutive sentences.
________________________________________________________________________________
The playwright's connections with the Knowsley region belong to his
pre-London "lost years" in the late 1570s and 1580s, possibly in the
service of wealthy crypto-Catholic Lancashire families, including the
Hoghtons, the Heskeths and the Stanleys (the family of the Earls of
Derby).
There is evidence that some of his earliest works, such as Richard III
and Love's Labour's Lost, were first staged at Prescot or nearby
Knowsley Hall.
"I don't want to emphasise the Da Vinci Code conspiracy side of it,"
says Professor Wilson dramatically, "but there's a big theatre
tradition in Lancashire because, as leading opponents of Elizabeth's
Protestant regime, these great Catholic houses kept players for their
own propaganda purposes."
The present Earl of Derby, a good friend of Prince Charles, has become
the patron of Shakespeare North; and the hope is that the Prince will
get behind the project if the bid succeeds.
They have some grounds for optimism: according to Wilson, the Prince
has visited Gdansk in Poland eight times to witness the rebuilding of
its 1604 Royal Court Theatre that was partly designed by the globe-
trotting Robert Browne, one of the Elizabethan players who performed
at Knowsley.
Yet there is no reason why two such destination theatres should not co-
exist at opposite ends of the country. In fact Thacker and Co hope
that the Cockpit would be a twin to the Globe as well as a rival
attraction, with the Globe players spending winter months on the
indoor Prescot stage before performing their summer season al fresco
on the South Bank.
(read the article at
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2007/03/26/btglobe126.xml >
)
______________________________________________________________________
On 3/20/07, lyra wrote:
______________________________________________________
______________________________________________________
--
lyra
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