World Shakespeare Festival

Last updated

The World Shakespeare Festival was a programme of events about William Shakespeare and his work. They took place mostly in London and Stratford-upon-Avon as part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad which accompanied the Olympic Games. It was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company and sponsored by the Arts Council, BP and Lottery with about 60 participating organisations including the BBC, British Museum, National Theatre and Shakespeare's Globe. [1] [2] [3] [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Judi Dench</span> English actress (born 1934)

Dame Judith Olivia Dench is an English actress. Widely considered one of Britain's greatest actresses, she is noted for her versatile work in various films and television programmes encompassing several genres, as well as for her numerous roles on the stage. Dench has garnered various accolades throughout a career spanning over six decades, including an Academy Award, a Tony Award, two Golden Globe Awards, four British Academy Television Awards, six British Academy Film Awards and seven Olivier Awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Suchet</span> English actor (born 1946)

Sir David Courtney Suchet is an English actor known for his work on British stage and television. He portrayed Edward Teller in the television serial Oppenheimer (1980) and received the RTS and BPG awards for his performance as Augustus Melmotte in the British serial The Way We Live Now (2001). International acclaim and recognition followed his performance as Agatha Christie's detective Hercule Poirot in Agatha Christie's Poirot (1989–2013), for which he received a 1991 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) nomination.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Royal Shakespeare Company</span> British theatre company

The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs over 1,000 staff and produces around 20 productions a year. The RSC plays regularly in London, Stratford-upon-Avon, and on tour across the UK and internationally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derek Jacobi</span> English actor (born 1938)

Sir Derek George Jacobi is an English actor. Jacobi is known for his work at the Royal National Theatre and for his film and television roles. He has received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award, two Olivier Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, and a Tony Award. He was given a knighthood for his services to theatre by Queen Elizabeth II in 1994.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prescott, Ontario</span> Town in Ontario, Canada

Prescott is a town on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River in province of Ontario, Canada. The town is a part of the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville. In 2021, it had a population of 4,078. The Ogdensburg–Prescott International Bridge, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) east of Prescott at Johnstown, crosses the Canada-United States border and connects the town with the city of Ogdensburg, New York.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Prescott</span> Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007

John Leslie Prescott, Baron Prescott is a British politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1997 to 2007 and as First Secretary of State from 2001 to 2007. A member of the Labour Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Kingston upon Hull East for 40 years, from 1970 to 2010. He was seen as the political link to the working class in a Labour Party increasingly led by modernising, middle-class professionals such as Tony Blair and Peter Mandelson and developed a reputation as a key conciliator in the often stormy relationship between Blair and Gordon Brown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stratford Festival</span> Theatre festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada

The Stratford Festival is a theatre festival which runs from April to October in the city of Stratford, Ontario, Canada. Founded by local journalist Tom Patterson in 1952, the festival was formerly known as the Stratford Shakespearean Festival, the Shakespeare Festival and the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. The festival was one of the first arts festivals in Canada and continues to be one of its most prominent. It is recognized worldwide for its productions of Shakespearean plays.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Hall (director)</span> English theatre, opera and film director (1930–2017)

Sir Peter Reginald Frederick Hall CBE was an English theatre, opera and film director. His obituary in The Times declared him "the most important figure in British theatre for half a century" and on his death, a Royal National Theatre statement declared that Hall's "influence on the artistic life of Britain in the 20th century was unparalleled". In 2018, the Laurence Olivier Awards, recognizing achievements in London theatre, changed the award for Best Director to the Sir Peter Hall Award for Best Director.

Amanda Root is an English stage and screen actress and a former voice actress for children's programmes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shakespeare's Globe</span> Theatre in London, England

Shakespeare's Globe is a reconstruction of the Globe Theatre, an Elizabethan playhouse for which William Shakespeare wrote his plays, in the London Borough of Southwark, on the south bank of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in 1599, destroyed by a fire in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and then demolished in 1644. The modern Globe Theatre is an academic approximation based on available evidence of the 1599 and 1614 buildings. It is considered quite realistic, though modern safety requirements mean that it accommodates only 1,400 spectators compared to the original theatre's 3,000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alun Armstrong</span> English actor

Alan Armstrong, known professionally as Alun Armstrong, is an English character actor. He grew up in County Durham in North East England, and first became interested in acting through Shakespeare productions at his grammar school. Since his career began in the early 1970s, he has played, in his words, "the full spectrum of characters from the grotesque to musicals... I always play very colourful characters, often a bit crazy, despotic, psychotic".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harriet Walter</span> British actress (born 1950)

Dame Harriet Mary Walter is a British actress. Known for her extensive work in numerous Royal Shakespeare Company productions, Walter has received an Olivier Award as well as nominations for a Tony Award, five Emmy Awards, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. In 2011, she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) for services to drama.

The Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival at the University of Notre Dame is an annual festival that seeks to combine professional productions of the works of William Shakespeare with community engagement and educational programs. The Notre Dame Shakespeare Festival is a part of the University of Notre Dame's Shakespeare initiative entitled "Shakespeare at Notre Dame", a program that recognizes the centrality of the study of Shakespeare in humanistic pedagogy at the University. Its fifteenth season was known as the 15/150, also celebrating the 450th birthday of William Shakespeare, and the 150th anniversary of the first full production of Shakespeare at the university in 1864. The anniversary season consisted of the Professional Company production of Henry IV, the Young Company performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor, and the annual ShakeScenes shows featuring actors of all ages from South Bend and the surrounding community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rufus Hound</span> British actor, comedian and presenter

Rufus Hound is an English actor, comedian and presenter.

<i>Much Ado About Nothing</i> Comedy play by William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy by William Shakespeare thought to have been written in 1598 and 1599. The play was included in the First Folio, published in 1623.

Paul Popplewell is a British actor having played Simon in the BBC television drama Criminal (1994), Happy Mondays Paul Ryder in 24 Hour Party People (2001), Tyrannosaur, Black Mirror'sFifteen Million Merits (2011), and as Paul Pegg in Casualty (2021-2023).

Gregory Doran is an English director known for his Shakespearean work. The Sunday Times called him 'one of the great Shakespearians of his generation'.

The 2012 Cultural Olympiad was a programme of cultural events across the United Kingdom that accompanied the 2012 Summer Olympics and 2012 Summer Paralympics.

Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon, is a fictional character from William Shakespeare's play Much Ado About Nothing. In the play, Don Pedro is a nobleman who visits his friend Leonato in Messina, Italy after a successful military conquest. Don Pedro helps Claudio to woo Hero and helps set up Benedick and Beatrice who together form the two key couples in the play.

References

  1. World Shakespeare Festival tickets go on public sale, BBC, 10 October 2011
  2. Neil MacGregor (29 Nov 2011), "The World Shakespeare Festival", The Daily Telegraph
  3. Paul Prescott (2013), "The World Shakespeare Festival 2012", Reviewing Shakespeare: Journalism and Performance from the Eighteenth Century to the Present, Cambridge University Press, pp. 177–182, ISBN   9781107470255
  4. Paul Edmondson; Paul Prescott; Erin Sullivan (2015), A Year of Shakespeare: Re-living the World Shakespeare Festival, Bloomsbury Publishing, ISBN   9781474246279