Shakespeare and Adaptation – serie

This book explores the crucial role Shakespeare’s play has performed in European culture in the long 20th century.The story of regicide, ambition, civil war and tyranny has resonated across a continent ravaged by armed conflict and riven by competing political and ideological systems. Equally, the play’s acute explorations of gender dynamics, mental breakdown, guilt and suicide have spoken to the psychological and interpersonal pressures of European life in the ‘Age of Extremes’.This unique book gathers expert contributors from across the continent to explore adaptations of the play from 1870-2020. Each chapter explores the fascination Macbeth has exerted in a remarkable variety of places and contexts, from Stalin’s Russia to contemporary Catalonia, from the Scottish tourist industry to the French radio airwaves. Throughout, we see how European adaptors have been liberated from the demands of fidelity to the original Anglophone text. From a European perspective, Macbeth offers a powerful myth that is both flawed and somehow indispensable. It demands to be re-told but it also requires fixing through adaptation.This collection is distinctive in the sheer range of adaptations it considers: while the stage is represented throughout, we also learn about Macbeth on radio, in novels, in poetry, in graphic art and photography, adapted for local political and personal resonances in private such as letters and diaries, but also in the public spheres of newspaper columns and high-profile court cases. Anyone who reads this book will never see the play in the same way again.

Romeo and Juliet is the most produced, translated and re-mixed of all of Shakespeare’s plays. This volume takes up the iconographic, linguistic and performance layers already at work within it and tracks the play’s dispersal into neighbouring art forms – including ballet, opera, television and architecture – and geographical locations, including Italy, Ireland, France, India and Korea.Chapters trace Shakespeare's own acts of adaptation and appropriation of sources and the play's subsequent migrations into other media. Part One considers reworkings of Romeo and Juliet in Hector Berlioz's 1839 choral symphony and ballets choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan and John Neumeier. Part Two explores the afterlives of Shakespeare’s lovers in the narrative forms of fiction, film and serial television, including works by James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and HBO's series Westworld.Part Three examines dramatic adaptations of the play into other languages, dialects and cultural contexts. Authors consider Hindi translations and the complex and changing status of Shakespeare's work in India, as well as productions of the play in Korea set against its evolving history. The volume ends with a first-person account of staging Romeo and Juliet at an HBCU (historically Black college/university), documenting the tensions between the notion of Shakespeare as a universal author and the lived experiences of marginalized communities as they engage with his plays.

Romeo and Juliet is the most produced, translated and re-mixed of all of Shakespeare''s plays. This volume takes up the iconographic, linguistic and performance layers already at work within it and tracks the play''s dispersal into neighbouring art forms – including ballet, opera, television and architecture – and geographical locations, including Italy, Ireland, France, India and Korea.Chapters trace Shakespeare''s own acts of adaptation and appropriation of sources and the play''s subsequent migrations into other media. Part One considers reworkings of Romeo and Juliet in Hector Berlioz''s 1839 choral symphony and ballets choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan and John Neumeier. Part Two explores the afterlives of Shakespeare''s lovers in the narrative forms of fiction, film and serial television, including works by James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and HBO''s series Westworld.Part Three examines dramatic adaptations of the play into other languages, dialects and cultural contexts. Authors consider Hindi translations and the complex and changing status of Shakespeare''s work in India, as well as productions of the play in Korea set against its evolving history. The volume ends with a first-person account of staging Romeo and Juliet at an HBCU (historically Black college/university), documenting the tensions between the notion of Shakespeare as a universal author and the lived experiences of marginalized communities as they engage with his plays.

Romeo and Juliet is the most produced, translated and re-mixed of all of Shakespeare''s plays. This volume takes up the iconographic, linguistic and performance layers already at work within it and tracks the play''s dispersal into neighbouring art forms – including ballet, opera, television and architecture – and geographical locations, including Italy, Ireland, France, India and Korea.Chapters trace Shakespeare''s own acts of adaptation and appropriation of sources and the play''s subsequent migrations into other media. Part One considers reworkings of Romeo and Juliet in Hector Berlioz''s 1839 choral symphony and ballets choreographed by Sir Kenneth MacMillan and John Neumeier. Part Two explores the afterlives of Shakespeare''s lovers in the narrative forms of fiction, film and serial television, including works by James Joyce, Samuel Beckett and HBO''s series Westworld.Part Three examines dramatic adaptations of the play into other languages, dialects and cultural contexts. Authors consider Hindi translations and the complex and changing status of Shakespeare''s work in India, as well as productions of the play in Korea set against its evolving history. The volume ends with a first-person account of staging Romeo and Juliet at an HBCU (historically Black college/university), documenting the tensions between the notion of Shakespeare as a universal author and the lived experiences of marginalized communities as they engage with his plays.

In this study, William C. Carroll analyses a wide range of adaptations and appropriations of Macbeth across different media to consider what it is about the play that compels our desire to reshape it. Arguing that many of these adaptations attempt to ‘improve’ or ‘correct’ the play’s perceived political or aesthetic flaws, Carroll traces how Macbeth’s popularity and adaptability stems from several of its formal features: its openly political nature; its inclusion of supernatural elements; its parable of the dangers of ambition; its violence; its brevity; and its domestic focus on a husband and wife.The study ranges across elite and popular culture divides: from Sir William Davenant’s adaptation for the Restoration stage (1663–4), an early 18th-century novel, The Secret History of Mackbeth and Verdi's Macbeth, through to 20th- and 21st-century adaptations for stage and screen, as well as contemporary novelizations, young adult literature and commercial appropriations that testify to the play's absorption into contemporary culture.

In this study, William C. Carroll analyses a wide range of adaptations and appropriations of Macbeth across different media to consider what it is about the play that compels our desire to reshape it. Arguing that many of these adaptations attempt to ''improve'' or ''correct'' the play''s perceived political or aesthetic flaws, Carroll traces how Macbeth''s popularity and adaptability stems from several of its formal features: its openly political nature; its inclusion of supernatural elements; its parable of the dangers of ambition; its violence; its brevity; and its domestic focus on a husband and wife. The study ranges across elite and popular culture divides: from Sir William Davenant''s adaptation for the Restoration stage (1663–4), an early 18th-century novel, The Secret History of Mackbeth and Verdi''s Macbeth, through to 20th- and 21st-century adaptations for stage and screen, as well as contemporary novelizations, young adult literature and commercial appropriations that testify to the play''s absorption into contemporary culture.

In this study, William C. Carroll analyses a wide range of adaptations and appropriations of Macbeth across different media to consider what it is about the play that compels our desire to reshape it. Arguing that many of these adaptations attempt to ''improve'' or ''correct'' the play''s perceived political or aesthetic flaws, Carroll traces how Macbeth''s popularity and adaptability stems from several of its formal features: its openly political nature; its inclusion of supernatural elements; its parable of the dangers of ambition; its violence; its brevity; and its domestic focus on a husband and wife. The study ranges across elite and popular culture divides: from Sir William Davenant''s adaptation for the Restoration stage (1663–4), an early 18th-century novel, The Secret History of Mackbeth and Verdi''s Macbeth, through to 20th- and 21st-century adaptations for stage and screen, as well as contemporary novelizations, young adult literature and commercial appropriations that testify to the play''s absorption into contemporary culture.

Women and Indian Shakespeares explores the multiple ways in which women are, and have been, engaged with Shakespeare in India. Women’s engagements encompass the full range of media, from translation to cinematic adaptation and from early colonial performance to contemporary theatrical experiment. Simultaneously, Women and Indian Shakespeares makes visible the ways in which women are figured in various representational registers as resistant agents, martial seductresses, redemptive daughters, victims of caste discrimination, conflicted spaces and global citizens. In so doing, the collection reorients existing lines of investigation, extends the disciplinary field, brings into visibility still occluded subjects and opens up radical readings. More broadly, the collection identifies how, in Indian Shakespeares on page, stage and screen, women increasingly possess the ability to shape alternative futures across patriarchal and societal barriers of race, caste, religion and class.In repeated iterations, the collection turns our attention to localized modes of adaptation that enable opportunities for women while celebrating Shakespeare’s gendered interactions in India’s rapidly changing, and increasingly globalized, cultural, economic and political environment. In the contributions, we see a transformed Shakespeare, a playwright who appears differently when seen through the gendered eyes of a new Indian, diasporic and global generation of critics, historians, archivists, practitioners and directors. Radically imagining Indian Shakespeares with women at the centre, Women and Indian Shakespeares interweaves history, regional geography/regionality, language and the present day to establish a record of women as creators and adapters of Shakespeare in Indian contexts.

Women and Indian Shakespeares explores the multiple ways in which women are, and have been, engaged with Shakespeare in India. Women''s engagements encompass the full range of media, from translation to cinematic adaptation and from early colonial performance to contemporary theatrical experiment. Simultaneously, Women and Indian Shakespeares makes visible the ways in which women are figured in various representational registers as resistant agents, martial seductresses, redemptive daughters, victims of caste discrimination, conflicted spaces and global citizens. In so doing, the collection reorients existing lines of investigation, extends the disciplinary field, brings into visibility still occluded subjects and opens up radical readings. More broadly, the collection identifies how, in Indian Shakespeares on page, stage and screen, women increasingly possess the ability to shape alternative futures across patriarchal and societal barriers of race, caste, religion and class. In repeated iterations, the collection turns our attention to localized modes of adaptation that enable opportunities for women while celebrating Shakespeare''s gendered interactions in India''s rapidly changing, and increasingly globalized, cultural, economic and political environment. In the contributions, we see a transformed Shakespeare, a playwright who appears differently when seen through the gendered eyes of a new Indian, diasporic and global generation of critics, historians, archivists, practitioners and directors. Radically imagining Indian Shakespeares with women at the centre, Women and Indian Shakespeares interweaves history, regional geography/regionality, language and the present day to establish a record of women as creators and adapters of Shakespeare in Indian contexts.

Women and Indian Shakespeares explores the multiple ways in which women are, and have been, engaged with Shakespeare in India. Women''s engagements encompass the full range of media, from translation to cinematic adaptation and from early colonial performance to contemporary theatrical experiment. Simultaneously, Women and Indian Shakespeares makes visible the ways in which women are figured in various representational registers as resistant agents, martial seductresses, redemptive daughters, victims of caste discrimination, conflicted spaces and global citizens. In so doing, the collection reorients existing lines of investigation, extends the disciplinary field, brings into visibility still occluded subjects and opens up radical readings. More broadly, the collection identifies how, in Indian Shakespeares on page, stage and screen, women increasingly possess the ability to shape alternative futures across patriarchal and societal barriers of race, caste, religion and class. In repeated iterations, the collection turns our attention to localized modes of adaptation that enable opportunities for women while celebrating Shakespeare''s gendered interactions in India''s rapidly changing, and increasingly globalized, cultural, economic and political environment. In the contributions, we see a transformed Shakespeare, a playwright who appears differently when seen through the gendered eyes of a new Indian, diasporic and global generation of critics, historians, archivists, practitioners and directors. Radically imagining Indian Shakespeares with women at the centre, Women and Indian Shakespeares interweaves history, regional geography/regionality, language and the present day to establish a record of women as creators and adapters of Shakespeare in Indian contexts.

Women and Indian Shakespeares explores the multiple ways in which women are, and have been, engaged with Shakespeare in India. Women’s engagements encompass the full range of media, from translation to cinematic adaptation and from early colonial performance to contemporary theatrical experiment. Simultaneously, Women and Indian Shakespeares makes visible the ways in which women are figured in various representational registers as resistant agents, martial seductresses, redemptive daughters, victims of caste discrimination, conflicted spaces and global citizens. In so doing, the collection reorients existing lines of investigation, extends the disciplinary field, brings into visibility still occluded subjects and opens up radical readings. More broadly, the collection identifies how, in Indian Shakespeares on page, stage and screen, women increasingly possess the ability to shape alternative futures across patriarchal and societal barriers of race, caste, religion and class.In repeated iterations, the collection turns our attention to localized modes of adaptation that enable opportunities for women while celebrating Shakespeare’s gendered interactions in India’s rapidly changing, and increasingly globalized, cultural, economic and political environment. In the contributions, we see a transformed Shakespeare, a playwright who appears differently when seen through the gendered eyes of a new Indian, diasporic and global generation of critics, historians, archivists, practitioners and directors. Radically imagining Indian Shakespeares with women at the centre, Women and Indian Shakespeares interweaves history, regional geography/regionality, language and the present day to establish a record of women as creators and adapters of Shakespeare in Indian contexts.

This edited collection offers the first in-depth analysis and sourcebook for ‘Lockdown Shakespeare’. It brings together scholars of stage, screen, early modern and adaptation studies to examine the work that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic and considers issues of form, liveness, reception, presence and community. Interviews with theatre makers and artists illuminate the challenges and benefits of creating new work online, while educators consider how digital tools have facilitated the teaching of Shakespeare through performance. Together, the chapters in this book offer readers the definitive work on the performance and adaptation of Shakespeare online during the pandemic.From The Show Must Go Online, which presented Shakespeare’s First Folio via YouTube, to Creation Theatre and Big Telly’s interactive The Tempest and Macbeth, which used Zoom as their stage, the book documents the variety and richness of work that emerged during the pandemic. It reveals how, by taking Shakespeare online in new and innovative ways, the theatre industry sparked the evolution of new forms of performance with their own conventions, aesthetics and notions of liveness. Among the other productions discussed are Arden Theatre Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tender Claws’ ‘The Under Presents: Tempest’, The Shakespeare Ensemble’s What You Will, Merced Shakespearefest’s Ricardo II, CtrlAltRepeat’s Midsummer Night Stream, Sally McLean’s Shakespeare Republic: #AllTheWebsAStage (The Lockdown Chronicles) and Justina Taft Mattos’s Moore – A Pacific Island Othello.

This edited collection offers the first in-depth analysis and sourcebook for ''Lockdown Shakespeare''. It brings together scholars of stage, screen, early modern and adaptation studies to examine the work that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic and considers issues of form, liveness, reception, presence and community. Interviews with theatre makers and artists illuminate the challenges and benefits of creating new work online, while educators consider how digital tools have facilitated the teaching of Shakespeare through performance. Together, the chapters in this book offer readers the definitive work on the performance and adaptation of Shakespeare online during the pandemic.From The Show Must Go Online, which presented Shakespeare''s First Folio via YouTube, to Creation Theatre and Big Telly''s interactive The Tempest and Macbeth, which used Zoom as their stage, the book documents the variety and richness of work that emerged during the pandemic. It reveals how, by taking Shakespeare online in new and innovative ways, the theatre industry sparked the evolution of new forms of performance with their own conventions, aesthetics and notions of liveness. Among the other productions discussed are Arden Theatre Company''s A Midsummer Night''s Dream, Tender Claws'' ''The Under Presents: Tempest'', The Shakespeare Ensemble''s What You Will, Merced Shakespearefest''s Ricardo II, CtrlAltRepeat''s Midsummer Night Stream, Sally McLean''s Shakespeare Republic: #AllTheWebsAStage (The Lockdown Chronicles) and Justina Taft Mattos''s Moore – A Pacific Island Othello.

This edited collection offers the first in-depth analysis and sourcebook for ''Lockdown Shakespeare''. It brings together scholars of stage, screen, early modern and adaptation studies to examine the work that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic and considers issues of form, liveness, reception, presence and community. Interviews with theatre makers and artists illuminate the challenges and benefits of creating new work online, while educators consider how digital tools have facilitated the teaching of Shakespeare through performance. Together, the chapters in this book offer readers the definitive work on the performance and adaptation of Shakespeare online during the pandemic.From The Show Must Go Online, which presented Shakespeare''s First Folio via YouTube, to Creation Theatre and Big Telly''s interactive The Tempest and Macbeth, which used Zoom as their stage, the book documents the variety and richness of work that emerged during the pandemic. It reveals how, by taking Shakespeare online in new and innovative ways, the theatre industry sparked the evolution of new forms of performance with their own conventions, aesthetics and notions of liveness. Among the other productions discussed are Arden Theatre Company''s A Midsummer Night''s Dream, Tender Claws'' ''The Under Presents: Tempest'', The Shakespeare Ensemble''s What You Will, Merced Shakespearefest''s Ricardo II, CtrlAltRepeat''s Midsummer Night Stream, Sally McLean''s Shakespeare Republic: #AllTheWebsAStage (The Lockdown Chronicles) and Justina Taft Mattos''s Moore – A Pacific Island Othello.

This edited collection offers the first in-depth analysis and sourcebook for ‘Lockdown Shakespeare’. It brings together scholars of stage, screen, early modern and adaptation studies to examine the work that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic and considers issues of form, liveness, reception, presence and community. Interviews with theatre makers and artists illuminate the challenges and benefits of creating new work online, while educators consider how digital tools have facilitated the teaching of Shakespeare through performance. Together, the chapters in this book offer readers the definitive work on the performance and adaptation of Shakespeare online during the pandemic.From The Show Must Go Online, which presented Shakespeare’s First Folio via YouTube, to Creation Theatre and Big Telly’s interactive The Tempest and Macbeth, which used Zoom as their stage, the book documents the variety and richness of work that emerged during the pandemic. It reveals how, by taking Shakespeare online in new and innovative ways, the theatre industry sparked the evolution of new forms of performance with their own conventions, aesthetics and notions of liveness. Among the other productions discussed are Arden Theatre Company’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Tender Claws’ ‘The Under Presents: Tempest’, The Shakespeare Ensemble’s What You Will, Merced Shakespearefest’s Ricardo II, CtrlAltRepeat’s Midsummer Night Stream, Sally McLean’s Shakespeare Republic: #AllTheWebsAStage (The Lockdown Chronicles) and Justina Taft Mattos’s Moore – A Pacific Island Othello.

How can we tune into the ecological dynamics of Shakespeare’s plays? How can we adapt those plays to address current environmental crises?This is the first book to fuse Shakespearean ecocriticism with adaptation studies. It is a single critical and contextual resource for students, teachers and practitioners embarking on an in-depth exploration of ecological approaches to Shakespeare and adaptation. The book provides critical insight into ecological performance practices and accessible contextual information for ecocriticism, early modern environmental cultures and theatre-making.This guide offers:- Primary texts from the early modern period to the present, covering themes such as weather, botany, agriculture, fertility, land rights, animal and human relationships, metamorphosis and adaptation;- A focus on 3 of the most studied and adapted plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear and The Tempest, as a basis for the wider application of ecological adaptive principles to Shakespeare;- A full range of environmental references in each focus play through innovative Eco-Tables;- Concise summaries of literary ecocriticism in relation to each key text;- Sustained attention to performance and creative writing as ecocritical interventions;- The first dedicated chapter in the field offering conceptual and practical resources for staging your own Shakespearean eco-adaptation;- A glossary of key terms and links to resources;- An accompanying companion website featuring additional resources.Shakespeare, Ecology and Adaptation: A Practical Guide provides a pedagogic pathway and a ready-made syllabus for teachers. It is also an indispensable resource for theatre directors, designers, actors and dramaturgs seeking inspiration for the environmentally engaged productions and adaptations the future demands of us.

How can we tune into the ecological dynamics of Shakespeare’s plays? How can we adapt those plays to address current environmental crises?This is the first book to fuse Shakespearean ecocriticism with adaptation studies. It is a single critical and contextual resource for students, teachers and practitioners embarking on an in-depth exploration of ecological approaches to Shakespeare and adaptation. The book provides critical insight into ecological performance practices and accessible contextual information for ecocriticism, early modern environmental cultures and theatre-making.This guide offers:- Primary texts from the early modern period to the present, covering themes such as weather, botany, agriculture, fertility, land rights, animal and human relationships, metamorphosis and adaptation;- A focus on 3 of the most studied and adapted plays, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear and The Tempest, as a basis for the wider application of ecological adaptive principles to Shakespeare;- A full range of environmental references in each focus play through innovative Eco-Tables;- Concise summaries of literary ecocriticism in relation to each key text;- Sustained attention to performance and creative writing as ecocritical interventions;- The first dedicated chapter in the field offering conceptual and practical resources for staging your own Shakespearean eco-adaptation;- A glossary of key terms and links to resources;- An accompanying companion website featuring additional resources.Shakespeare, Ecology and Adaptation: A Practical Guide provides a pedagogic pathway and a ready-made syllabus for teachers. It is also an indispensable resource for theatre directors, designers, actors and dramaturgs seeking inspiration for the environmentally engaged productions and adaptations the future demands of us.

How can we tune into the ecological dynamics of Shakespeare''s plays? How can we adapt those plays to address current environmental crises? This is the first book to fuse Shakespearean ecocriticism with adaptation studies. It is a single critical and contextual resource for students, teachers and practitioners embarking on an in-depth exploration of ecological approaches to Shakespeare and adaptation. The book provides critical insight into ecological performance practices and accessible contextual information for ecocriticism, early modern environmental cultures and theatre-making.This guide offers:- Primary texts from the early modern period to the present, covering themes such as weather, botany, agriculture, fertility, land rights, animal and human relationships, metamorphosis and adaptation;- A focus on 3 of the most studied and adapted plays, A Midsummer Night''s Dream, King Lear and The Tempest, as a basis for the wider application of ecological adaptive principles to Shakespeare;- A full range of environmental references in each focus play through innovative Eco-Tables;- Concise summaries of literary ecocriticism in relation to each key text;- Sustained attention to performance and creative writing as ecocritical interventions;- The first dedicated chapter in the field offering conceptual and practical resources for staging your own Shakespearean eco-adaptation;- A glossary of key terms and links to resources;- An accompanying companion website featuring additional resources.Shakespeare, Ecology and Adaptation: A Practical Guide provides a pedagogic pathway and a ready-made syllabus for teachers. It is also an indispensable resource for theatre directors, designers, actors and dramaturgs seeking inspiration for the environmentally engaged productions and adaptations the future demands of us.

How can we tune into the ecological dynamics of Shakespeare''s plays? How can we adapt those plays to address current environmental crises? This is the first book to fuse Shakespearean ecocriticism with adaptation studies. It is a single critical and contextual resource for students, teachers and practitioners embarking on an in-depth exploration of ecological approaches to Shakespeare and adaptation. The book provides critical insight into ecological performance practices and accessible contextual information for ecocriticism, early modern environmental cultures and theatre-making.This guide offers:- Primary texts from the early modern period to the present, covering themes such as weather, botany, agriculture, fertility, land rights, animal and human relationships, metamorphosis and adaptation;- A focus on 3 of the most studied and adapted plays, A Midsummer Night''s Dream, King Lear and The Tempest, as a basis for the wider application of ecological adaptive principles to Shakespeare;- A full range of environmental references in each focus play through innovative Eco-Tables;- Concise summaries of literary ecocriticism in relation to each key text;- Sustained attention to performance and creative writing as ecocritical interventions;- The first dedicated chapter in the field offering conceptual and practical resources for staging your own Shakespearean eco-adaptation;- A glossary of key terms and links to resources;- An accompanying companion website featuring additional resources.Shakespeare, Ecology and Adaptation: A Practical Guide provides a pedagogic pathway and a ready-made syllabus for teachers. It is also an indispensable resource for theatre directors, designers, actors and dramaturgs seeking inspiration for the environmentally engaged productions and adaptations the future demands of us.

In this study, William C. Carroll analyses a wide range of adaptations and appropriations of Macbeth across different media to consider what it is about the play that compels our desire to reshape it. Arguing that many of these adaptations attempt to ‘improve’ or ‘correct’ the play’s perceived political or aesthetic flaws, Carroll traces how Macbeth’s popularity and adaptability stems from several of its formal features: its openly political nature; its inclusion of supernatural elements; its parable of the dangers of ambition; its violence; its brevity; and its domestic focus on a husband and wife.The study ranges across elite and popular culture divides: from Sir William Davenant’s adaptation for the Restoration stage (1663–4), an early 18th-century novel, The Secret History of Mackbeth and Verdi's Macbeth, through to 20th- and 21st-century adaptations for stage and screen, as well as contemporary novelizations, young adult literature and commercial appropriations that testify to the play's absorption into contemporary culture.

"A fascinating and highly readable account." - Sir Stanley Wells"An outstanding, remarkable book." - Lisa S. Starks, University of South Florida, USAThis new and comprehensive study of Shakespearean ballets and their unique interpretive possibilities is also the first to foreground the importance of music to the aesthetics and meanings of Shakespeare dance-works.Organised around adaptations of key plays, each chapter offers close study of the contrasting interpretations and styles of a number of choreographers and illuminates issues of gender, sexuality, race and politics.While Shakespeare’s work is recreated in diverse forms in theatres all over the world, ballet is potentially one of the most international and inclusive forms of theatrical expression, based in the fundamental expressive potential of the body. Since it moved into the avant-garde more than a century ago, it has been in the forefront of invention and experiment in the theatrical arts and yet the hundreds of ballets which have been based on Shakespeare’s work have received scant attention in Shakespearean scholarship and criticism.David Fuller explores a wide range of Shakespeare’s oeuvre as it has been recreated in this form, with studies of ballets based on some of his most famous works, including The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Sonnets, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and The Tempest. With analysis of productions from the 1940s to the present by British, American and European choreographers, it reads these as forms of creative criticism which reflect wider developments in society and in so doing show Shakespeare as perpetually contemporary.

"e;A fascinating and highly readable account."e; - Sir Stanley Wells"e;An outstanding, remarkable book."e; - Lisa S. Starks, University of South Florida, USAThis new and comprehensive study of Shakespearean ballets and their unique interpretive possibilities is also the first to foreground the importance of music to the aesthetics and meanings of Shakespeare dance-works.Organised around adaptations of key plays, each chapter offers close study of the contrasting interpretations and styles of a number of choreographers and illuminates issues of gender, sexuality, race and politics. While Shakespeare's work is recreated in diverse forms in theatres all over the world, ballet is potentially one of the most international and inclusive forms of theatrical expression, based in the fundamental expressive potential of the body. Since it moved into the avant-garde more than a century ago, it has been in the forefront of invention and experiment in the theatrical arts and yet the hundreds of ballets which have been based on Shakespeare's work have received scant attention in Shakespearean scholarship and criticism. David Fuller explores a wide range of Shakespeare's oeuvre as it has been recreated in this form, with studies of ballets based on some of his most famous works, including The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Sonnets, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and The Tempest. With analysis of productions from the 1940s to the present by British, American and European choreographers, it reads these as forms of creative criticism which reflect wider developments in society and in so doing show Shakespeare as perpetually contemporary.

"e;A fascinating and highly readable account."e; - Sir Stanley Wells"e;An outstanding, remarkable book."e; - Lisa S. Starks, University of South Florida, USAThis new and comprehensive study of Shakespearean ballets and their unique interpretive possibilities is also the first to foreground the importance of music to the aesthetics and meanings of Shakespeare dance-works.Organised around adaptations of key plays, each chapter offers close study of the contrasting interpretations and styles of a number of choreographers and illuminates issues of gender, sexuality, race and politics. While Shakespeare's work is recreated in diverse forms in theatres all over the world, ballet is potentially one of the most international and inclusive forms of theatrical expression, based in the fundamental expressive potential of the body. Since it moved into the avant-garde more than a century ago, it has been in the forefront of invention and experiment in the theatrical arts and yet the hundreds of ballets which have been based on Shakespeare's work have received scant attention in Shakespearean scholarship and criticism. David Fuller explores a wide range of Shakespeare's oeuvre as it has been recreated in this form, with studies of ballets based on some of his most famous works, including The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer Night's Dream, the Sonnets, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and The Tempest. With analysis of productions from the 1940s to the present by British, American and European choreographers, it reads these as forms of creative criticism which reflect wider developments in society and in so doing show Shakespeare as perpetually contemporary.

The collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital shaming. Violence against women. Sexual bullying. Racial slurs and injustice. These are just some of the problems faced by today’s young adults. Liberating Shakespeare explores how adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays can be used to empower young audiences by addressing issues of oppression, trauma and resistance.Showcasing a wide variety of approaches to understanding, adapting and teaching Shakespeare, this collection examines the significant number of Shakespeare adaptations targeting adolescent audiences in the past 25 years. It examines a wide variety of creative works made for and by young people that harness the power of Shakespeare to address some of the most pressing questions in contemporary culture – exploring themes of violence, race relations and intersectionality.The contributors to this volume consider whether the representations of characters and situations in YA Shakespeare can function as empowering models for students and how these works might be employed within educational settings. This collection argues that YA Shakespeare represents the diverse concerns of today’s youth and should be taken seriously as art that speaks to the complexities of a broken world, offering moments of hope for an uncertain future.

The collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital shaming. Violence against women. Sexual bullying. Racial slurs and injustice. These are just some of the problems faced by today’s young adults. Liberating Shakespeare explores how adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays can be used to empower young audiences by addressing issues of oppression, trauma and resistance.Showcasing a wide variety of approaches to understanding, adapting and teaching Shakespeare, this collection examines the significant number of Shakespeare adaptations targeting adolescent audiences in the past 25 years. It examines a wide variety of creative works made for and by young people that harness the power of Shakespeare to address some of the most pressing questions in contemporary culture – exploring themes of violence, race relations and intersectionality.The contributors to this volume consider whether the representations of characters and situations in YA Shakespeare can function as empowering models for students and how these works might be employed within educational settings. This collection argues that YA Shakespeare represents the diverse concerns of today’s youth and should be taken seriously as art that speaks to the complexities of a broken world, offering moments of hope for an uncertain future.

The collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital shaming. Violence against women. Sexual bullying. Racial slurs and injustice. These are just some of the problems faced by today''s young adults. Liberating Shakespeare explores how adaptations of Shakespeare''s plays can be used to empower young audiences by addressing issues of oppression, trauma and resistance. Showcasing a wide variety of approaches to understanding, adapting and teaching Shakespeare, this collection examines the significant number of Shakespeare adaptations targeting adolescent audiences in the past 25 years. It examines a wide variety of creative works made for and by young people that harness the power of Shakespeare to address some of the most pressing questions in contemporary culture – exploring themes of violence, race relations and intersectionality. The contributors to this volume consider whether the representations of characters and situations in YA Shakespeare can function as empowering models for students and how these works might be employed within educational settings. This collection argues that YA Shakespeare represents the diverse concerns of today''s youth and should be taken seriously as art that speaks to the complexities of a broken world, offering moments of hope for an uncertain future.

The collective trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic. Digital shaming. Violence against women. Sexual bullying. Racial slurs and injustice. These are just some of the problems faced by today''s young adults. Liberating Shakespeare explores how adaptations of Shakespeare''s plays can be used to empower young audiences by addressing issues of oppression, trauma and resistance. Showcasing a wide variety of approaches to understanding, adapting and teaching Shakespeare, this collection examines the significant number of Shakespeare adaptations targeting adolescent audiences in the past 25 years. It examines a wide variety of creative works made for and by young people that harness the power of Shakespeare to address some of the most pressing questions in contemporary culture – exploring themes of violence, race relations and intersectionality. The contributors to this volume consider whether the representations of characters and situations in YA Shakespeare can function as empowering models for students and how these works might be employed within educational settings. This collection argues that YA Shakespeare represents the diverse concerns of today''s youth and should be taken seriously as art that speaks to the complexities of a broken world, offering moments of hope for an uncertain future.

This volume reframes the critical conversation about Shakespeare’s histories and national identity by bringing together two growing bodies of work: early modern race scholarship and adaptation theory. Theorizing a link between adaptation and intersectionality, it demonstrates how over the past thirty years race has become a central and constitutive part of British and American screen adaptations of the English histories. Available to expanding audiences via digital media platforms, these adaptations interrogate the dialectic between Shakespeare’s cultural capital and racial reckonings on both sides of the Atlantic and across time. By engaging contemporary representations of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability and class, adaptation not only creates artefacts that differ from their source texts, but also facilitates the conditions in which race and its intersections in the plays become visible. At the centre of this analysis stand two landmark 21st-century history adaptations that use non-traditional casting: the British TV miniseries The Hollow Crown (2012, 2016) and the American independent film H4 (2012), an all-Black Henry IV conflation. In addition to demonstrating how the 21st-century screen history illuminates both past and present constructions of embodied difference, these works provide a lens for reassessing two history adaptations from Shakespeare’s 1990s box office renaissance, when actors of colour were first cast in cinematic versions of the plays. As exemplified by these formal adaptations’ reappropriations of race in history, non-traditional Shakespearean casting practices are also currently shaping digital culture’s conversations about race in non-Shakespearean period dramas such as Bridgerton.

This volume reframes the critical conversation about Shakespeare''s histories and national identity by bringing together two growing bodies of work: early modern race scholarship and adaptation theory. Theorizing a link between adaptation and intersectionality, it demonstrates how over the past thirty years race has become a central and constitutive part of British and American screen adaptations of the English histories. Available to expanding audiences via digital media platforms, these adaptations interrogate the dialectic between Shakespeare''s cultural capital and racial reckonings on both sides of the Atlantic and across time. By engaging contemporary representations of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, disability and class, adaptation not only creates artefacts that differ from their source texts, but also facilitates the conditions in which race and its intersections in the plays become visible. At the centre of this analysis stand two landmark 21st-century history adaptations that use non-traditional casting: the British TV miniseries The Hollow Crown (2012, 2016) and the American independent film H4 (2012), an all-Black Henry IV conflation. In addition to demonstrating how the 21st-century screen history illuminates both past and present constructions of embodied difference, these works provide a lens for reassessing two history adaptations from Shakespeare''s 1990s box office renaissance, when actors of colour were first cast in cinematic versions of the plays. As exemplified by these formal adaptations'' reappropriations of race in history, non-traditional Shakespearean casting practices are also currently shaping digital culture''s conversations about race in non-Shakespearean period dramas such as Bridgerton.