FACULTY MEMBERS

PROFESSOR MICHAEL DOBSON (Academic Chair). Formerly Professor of Renaissance Drama at the University of Surrey, Roehampton Institute, London, Michael Dobson has just become professor of Shakespeare Studies at Birkbeck College, University of London. He has also taught at Oxford, Harvard, Indiana, Northwestern and Illinois Universities. He has held visiting fellowships at UCLA and Peking University. His research interests include: Shakespeare, especially in performance and in contemporary culture; post-Renaissance conceptions of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature and history; nationalism. His recent publications include: The Oxford Companion to Shakespeare (Oxford University Press, 2001), with Stanley Wells as Associate General Editor; Articles for The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare, The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theatre, Shakespeare Survey, The London Review of Books, Magazine Litteraire, Performance Research International and Feit & Fictie. His books include The Making of the National Poet: Shakespeare, Adaptation and Authorship, 1660–1769 (published by Oxford University Press in 1995 and named Outstanding Academic Book of the Year by Choice); England’s Elizabeth: an Afterlife in Fame and Fantasy, co-written with Dr Nicola Watson (published by Oxford University Press in 2002). General editor with Gail Paster (Director of the Folger Shakespeare Library) of Palgrave’s Shakespeare Studies Monograph Series. Currently writing a full-length history of English amateur Shakespearian performance, in its civic, military, and colonial contexts, and editing Players of Shakespeare 7 (Cambridge University Press). He also comments regularly on shakespeare and performance for BBC radio, for The London Review of Books, and for Around the Globe. His acting and directing credits include The Winter's Tale (Oxford Playhouse with Samuel West and Patrick Marber) and Henry VIII (steppenwolf/Chicago humanities Festival).

NORMAN AYRTON (Directing) Former Head of London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, and Head of Opera at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Served on faculty of Juilliard and was Dean of BADA. Acted in the Old Vic Company. Taught for the Royal Shakespeare Company. He has been a freelance theatre and opera director throughout Europe and the US.  He directed The Way of the World for The Acting Company, directed and taught for Harvard, Cornell, Vassar, Oberlin and Sarah Lawrence, and has directed opera at Covent Garden, Vancouver and the sydney Opera House.

CHRISTOPHER COOK (Drama Criticism, History) is a broadcaster and journalist who has written, presented and produced many arts, feature and documentary programs for BBC Radios 2, 3, 4 and the BBC World Service including Kaleidoscope, Critics Forum, Third Ear, Third Opinion, Night Waves, Fine Lines and Meridian. He has produced and researched several documentary programs for television including CAMERONS COUNTRY, THE PHILPOTT FILE and YESTERDAY'S WITNESS for the BBC and THE WRITING ON THE WALL for Channel 4. Publications: THE LION and the DRAGON: BRITISH VOICES FROM THE CHINA COAST (Hamish Mamilton 1985), THE DILYS POWELL READER (OUP 1991) and GENETICS & HEALTH co-authored with Dr. Ron Zimmern (Nuffield Trust 2000).

NIGEL GEARING (19th century Novel, Shakespeare's Contemporaries) Educated at Cambridge University, Nigel gained a BA and MA in English. He won the Power Scholarship to the University of Michigan where he gained an MA in English and american Studies. Nigel is an award-winning playwright writing for stage, film and television. His awards include Winner of Best film at the Berlin film Festival. Nigel also translates French plays into English. He teaches Playwriting and English to MA students at Royal Holloway College, Marymount and Kings College London.

JOHN GORRIE (Directing) Has worked extensively for the BBC and Britain's Independent television companies. He directed and wrote the highly successful series Edward VII seen on PBS and the series Lillie also seen on PBS. He directed several episodes of Rumpole of the Bailey, Peak Practice, The Ruth Rendall Mysteries, Rattigan's Cause Celebre starring Helen Mirren and the Sherlock Holmes series. He directed three Shakespeare plays for the small screen (Macbeth, Twelfth Night and The Tempest). His theatre productions include The Lionel Touch with Rex Harrison and Shaw's The Arms and the Man for the Prospect Theatre Company. He was director of the prestigious BBC Directors Course.

VIVIEN HEILBRON (Acting Shakespeare) In the West End she played Mrs. Priest in The Aspen Papers at Wyndham's Theatre. Other leading roles include Queen Elizabeth opposite Sir Derek Jacobi in Richard III, Blanche in A Streetcar Named Desire, Mrs. Manningham in Gaslight, and Lady Caroline Braymore in John Bull. She created the role of the heroine in Harley Granville Barker's previously unperformed The Secret Life. Other roles played throughout the UK include the Princess of France in Love's Labours Lost, Juliet in Romeo and Juliet, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Hermia and Titania in A Midsummer Night's Dream and Miranda in The Tempest. Television includes Mrs. Ackroyd in The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and appearances in Taggart, The House of Elliot and Hetty Wainthrop Investigates. She received an Emmy nomination for Rachel in the BBC serial The Moonstone. Films include The Cooling Lakes of Death, Mysteries and Kidnapped opposite Michael Caine.


NICK HUTCHISON (Acting, Master Class) trained at Oxford and has extensive credits in theatre, film and television. Nick has worked for the Royal Shakespeare Company, The New Globe and the Royal National Theatre. Stage parts include the title roles in HAMLET and ROMEO AND JULIET, Benedick in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Orsino in TWELFTH NIGHT, Darlington in LADY WINDEMERE'S FAN, and Mosca in the European premiere of Larry Gelbart's SLY FOX. Nick has recently worked for the RSC in CYMBELINE, LITTLE EYOLF, MORE WORDS, and SAINT ERKENWALD. His film acting credits include THE BOUNTY with Antony Hopkins and Mel Gibson, RESTORATION, THE DARKENING, ABOUT A BOY, and 102 DALMATIONS. His extensive television credits include Ken Russell's LADY CHATTERLEY'S LOVER and the lead in the children's series LITTLE BIG MOUTH. Nick also enjoys a successful directing career both in England and the US. He directed CRIMES OF THE HEARTin London, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHIN, LOVE'S LABOURS LOST and IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNIST for Shenandoah Shakespeare in Virginia. Dean of BADA's Midsummer in London Program. He lectures on Shakespeare at the Globe Theatre in London and across Europe and the USA.

JOHN JONES (Acting) was senior teacher at the Central School of Speech and Drama from 1966-1989. during this time he worked regularly in the States at NYU, Circle in the Square, University of Utah, southern Methodist University in Dallas, the Alabama Shakespeare Festival and for the American Theatre Association. He does much private coaching and his students have included Hugh Grant and Julia Ormond. Since leaving Central he has worked freelance for the Poor School and many other drama schools. He has directed well over 200 plays.

BOIKA SOKOLOVA (Tragedies) is a specialist Shakespeare Professor, writer and lecturer. She is a member of the International Shakespeare Association, a Founder Member of the European Society for the Study of Shakespeare in Europe and was a member of the Board of the European Society for the Study of English (ESSE). She has been a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Surrey, Middlesex University, and a Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway. She is currently an adjunct professor for the University of California's London Programme, a Research Fellow at Birkbeck College and an adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Notre Dame's London Programme.

HILARY TAYLOR (Histories and Comedies) is a lecturer in Shakespeare Studies for NYU in London and a Globe Education Practitioner. She has lectured in English Drama in Poland, taught in the States and in many schools and colleges throughout England. She has been a visiting lecturer at Roehampton and London Guildhall Universities and her research project for BBC2/S4C, an animated version of the Canterbury Tales, was nominated for an Oscar and won a BAFTA award in 1999.

MICHELENE WANDOR (Playwriting, Fiction Writing) is a playwright, poet and critic. She has dramatised novels such as Jane Austen's PERSUASION and George Eliot's MILL ON THE FLOSS for radio, and her dramatisation of THE WANDERING JEW was performed at the National Theatre in 1987. She also reviews and broadcasts regularly on BBC radio 3 and 4. Text adaptations for Royal National Theatre. She is senior lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of North London.

IAN WOOLRIDGE (Dean of BADA) was Artistic director of the Glasgow Citizens Theatre from 1978-84 and Artistic Director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre Company, Edinburgh from 1984-93. His many productions include "The Merchant of Venice", ""Othello", and "Romeo and Juliet" by Shakespeare, "Arms and the Man" by Shaw, "Death of a Salesman" and "View from the Bridge" by Arthur Miller, "Three Sisters" by Chekhov, "Tartuffe" by Moliere and "The House of Bernarda Alba" by Lorca. Recently he directed "The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "The Taming of the Shrew" for the Southern Shakespeare Festival in Florida and "Much Ado About Nothing" for Cornell University. He has taught extensively for the British American Drama Academy and also the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama.

MASTER CLASSES and GUEST TALKS

During the program there will be a number of special talks by guest speakers and a series of master classes. Among the London stage luminaries who have recently given master classes are:

MICK BARNFATHER A member of Theatre de Complicite (Food Stuff, Please Please Please, The Visit,The Three Lives Of Lucie Cabrol, The Chairs, Light), he has performed/devised many productions at Almeida Theatre, Royal Court Theatre and Broadway. Other theatre includes Mr.Puntilla And His Man Matti (The Right Size), The Dove (Croydon Warehouse), Special Offer (Young Vic), Trouble in Paradise (Talking Pictures Theatre Co). and The End of the Tunnel. He has taught Melodrama and Neutral Mask (Commedia School in Copenhagen), Physicality in Performance (RADA), Clown (Central School of Speech and Drama), and Devising Theatre (Rose Bruford Drama School & Manchester Metropolitan University). He has also taught at the Philippe Gaulier School (Bouffon, Clown and Neutral Mask). He has given classes in Hong Kong, Berlin, Hamburg, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland and America.

JULIAN GLOVER Trained at RADA, he has performed extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He recently played the leading role in King Lear at the New Globe Theatre in London. Films include Tom Jones, The Empire Strikes Back, For Your Eyes Only, and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and he may currently be seen in Troy. In 2002 he played King Duncan and the Porter in "Macbeth" alongside Sean Bean in London. He has performed often with the RSC and has appeared in over sixty major films. Recent films include Out of Time, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Two Men Went to War, The Book of Eve, Ther Cavendish Profile and Vatel. He has had many starring roles and guest appearance on countless British television shows and mini-series.

HENRY GOODMAN Recently played Shylock to great acclaim for the RNT's Merchant of Venice, starred in Art on Broadway and won the Olivier Award for his performance in Angels in America. Olivier Award Winner for Best Actor 2000. Appeared on Broadway in Tartuffe in 2002. In 2003 he played the title role in Richard III for the Royal Shakespeare Company. His films include The Life and Death of Peter Sellars, Notting Hill. The Long Supper, The Saint, Final Curtain and he has been seen on PBS in Arthur Miller's Broken Glass. He played Sigmund Freud in Hysteria, Nathan Detroit in Guys and Dolls on the West End.

GREG HICKS is hailed as one of Britain's finest actors having appeared at the RSC, Royal National Theatre, doing a great deal of work for the Peter Hall Company at the Old Vic as well as on television and film.  Of his performance in THE FAMILY REUNION, Michael Billington in The Guardian extolled:  'The evening's chief pleasure lies in the performance by Greg Hicks as Harry. Rarely have I heard an actor so skilfully give formal verse a conversational rhythm by the simple expedient of emphasising the key word in each line.' He was presented with the John and Wendy Trewin Award for Best Shakespearean Performance for his performance as Coriolanus in David Farr’s highly acclaimed RSC production of the play last year. He played the comedic Dr. Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor in repertory with Coriolanus that year (2003). Greg recently performed the title role in Dominic Cooke’s new production of Macbeth for the RSC . In 2004 he was Brutus in Edward Hall's London production of Julius Caesar.

EDWARD PETHERBRIGE Edward has recenlty completed a successful year run as `The Toymaker` in CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG at the Palladium Theatre, directed by Adrian Noble and is currently in Andrew Lloyd Webber`s new musical THE WOMAN IN WHITE at The Palace Theatre directed by Trevor Nunn. In addition to his other extensive West End acting credits, his Royal Shakespeare Company roles include Player King (HAMLET), Cymbeline, Ford (MERRY WIVES), Malvolio and Orsino (TWELFTH NIGHT), Newman Naggs (NICHOLAS NICKLEBY), Armado (LOVE'S LABOURS LOST), Otto (NO LIMIT'S TO LOVE). With friend and fellow actor Ian McKellan, he created the Actors' Company in 1972 and performed in THE MISANTHROPE, THE CHERRY ORCHARD, THE CRITIC, THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND, THE DUCHESS OF MALFI, and STRANGE INTERLUDE.

DIANA QUICK Actress on stage, in film and television ("Brideshead Revisited"). Her recent films include "A Revenger's Tragedy", "The Discovery of Heaven", and "Saving Grace". Starred in "Lear" and "The Sea" at the Royal Court and has acted often at with the RSC and at the Royal National Theatre. Diana Quick was trained at Oxford University and has included both the classics and musical theatre in her repertoire over the years, ranging from "Troilus and Cressida" to "The Threepanny Opera." She has appeared in both films and TV. Specializing in aristocratic roles, she stood out among a highly formidable cast in the classic epic mini-series "Brideshead Revisited" and received both Emmy and BAFTA nominations for her efforts. She recently played Jean Rhys to critical acclaim in after "Mrs. Rochester" on the West End.

FIONA SHAW Voted Actress of the Year (Laurence Olivier Award) for her RSC performance in "Electra" also as Rosalind in "As You Like It" and a third time for "The Good Person of Setzuan" for the Royal National Theatre. She recently starred in "Medea, " "Richard II", "The Waste Land", and can be seen in the "Harry Potter" films. Both "Media" and "The Waste Land" were great successes for her in New York. Trained at RADA, she was awarded an honorary C.B.E. (Commander of the order of the British Empire) in 2001.She played Jean Brodie in "The Prime of Miss Jean Brody." She has won additional Best Actress awards (London Evening Standard Theatre Award and London Critics Circle Theatre Award) for her performances in "Hedda Gabler" and "Machinal."

STANLEY WELLS "Stanley Wells is arguably the single most powerful authority on Shakespeare in the world, literally," said Ann Cook, Vanderbilt University professor of English and the only American lifetime trustee of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust in Stratford-upon-Avon, England.Wells, who has lectured worldwide on Shakespeare, is chairman of The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, vice-chairman of the Governors of the Royal Shakespeare Company and a member of the board of directors of the Globe Theatre. He is a frequent reviewer of Shakespearean productions for the London Times.Currently emeritus professor at the University of Birmingham in Stratford-upon-Avon, Wells received his doctorate at the Shakespeare Institute of the University of Birmingham in 1962 and taught there until 1978, when he was appointed head of the Oxford University Press Shakespeare department and general editor of the "Oxford Shakespeare." Wells' many publications on Shakespeare and his contemporaries include "Shakespeare: A Life in Drama," published in paperback by Norton in 1997, and "Shakespeare in the Theatre: An Anthology of Criticism" (Oxford University Press, 1997).

PAST FACULTY MEMBERS

 PROFESSOR PETER HOLLAND (First Shakespeare Programme Academic Chair) is the McMeel Family Chair in Shakespeare Studies at the University of Notre Dame and former Professor of Shakespeare Studies and Director of the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham. He is considered one of the central figures in performance-oriented Shakespeare criticism. He was previously Judith E. Wilson Reader in Drama and Theatre in the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge. He has been closely involved in productions at Cambridge and also in the work of the Royal Shakespeare Company of which he is a Governor. His publications include "Ornament of Action: Text and Performance in Restoration Comedy" and "The Plays of William Wycherley". He has edited the Oxford Shakespeare edition of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and also edited selections of essays titled "The Play out of Context", "Reading Plays" and "English Comedy" and he has written many articles on Shakespeare. For the last five years he has written the annual review of Shakespeare productions in England for Shakespeare Survey. His most recent book is English Shakespeares: Shakespeare on the English Stage in the 1990's (published 1997).He has recently completed six programs on world-wide productions of Shakespeare for the BBC World Service and is a regular theatre reviewer for the BBC Radio.

IRINA BROWN (Directing) Freelance director, winner of Best Play Award and Peggy Ramsay Award. Has directed with major Russian directors and for the Royal National Theatre and in South Africa.

JOHN LENNARD (Former Academic Dean)(Shakespeare) educated at Bristol, Oxford and St. Louis; has taught at Oxford, London and most recently Cambridge, where he was fellow and Director of Studies at Trinity Hall, and Newton Trust Lecturer in Practical Criticism and held the Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship 1999-2000. He is the author of BUT I DIGRESS (Clarendon, 1991) and the best-selling THE POETRY HANDBOOK (OUP, 1996). THE DRAMA HANDBOOK (OUP 2001), and THE READING CONTEMPORARY POETRY (Bloomsbury On-Line 2001).

DR. PASCALE AEBISCHER (Shakespeare) studied at University of Bern (Switzerland) and trained as an actor at the London Academy of Performing Arts in 1992. She has since directed A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and ROMEO AND JULIET. At Oxford her doctoral these was on "Representing Personal Violence and Suffering in Shakespeare's TITUS ANDRONICUS, ROMEO AND JULIET, HAMLET and OTHELLO. She has published on Shakespeare and performance theory and is currently working on a project on THE TAMING OF THE SHREW as well as a book on violence in Shakespeare's tragedies. She is a research Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge.

SHEILLA ALLEN (Acting) Lead performances for Royal Shakespeare Company. Has taught at UCLA, Boston University, Oberlin University and University of Arizona.

DR. ROBERT GORDON (Theatre History) is Head of Drama at Goldsmiths' College, University of London. He has worked as a professional actor, director and playwright. His book on Tom Stoppard was published in Macmillan's Text and Performance series in 1991 and he has published articles on South African theatre, Restoration comedy and modern British drama (Orton, Rattigan, Osborne and Pinter), Oscar Wilde and Strindberg. He has directed and performed in Anne Le Marquand's "Jersey Lilies Trilogy," and in 2000 he was artistic director of a Pinter festival in Maine. His book on modern acting theories for the University of Michigan Press will be published in 2002.

JIM HOOPER (Acting) has directed many productions for London's drama schools including MEASURE FOR MEASURE, DEAD FUNNY, COMEDY OF ERRORS, THE LONDON CUCKOLDS, THE REVENGER'S TRAGEDY, A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM and OUR TOWN for Central School of Speech and Drama; A LA RECHERCHE DU TEMPS PERDU for LAMDA. In America he directed THE WINTER'S TALE for Bennington College, Vermont. He has taught for all the top drama schools, the Toyal National Studio, the University of Syracuse London branch and at The Artists Palace in Vilnus, Lithuania.

JOSEPH MYDELL (Acting) Laurence Olivier Award Winner for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (PERESTROIKA - ANGELS IN AMERICA at the National Theatre), Joseph, who trained at New York University's School of the Arts, has extensive theatre, film and telivision credits and recently appeared in TOBACCOLAND at the Manchester Royal Exchange. He toured American Universities as Paul Laurence Dunbar with his Edinburgh Festival award-winning one man show LYRICS OF THE HEARTHSIDE. Other recent roles included the title role in EVERYMAN and Satan in THE MYSTERIES, both for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

TAMSIN PALMER (Academic Advisor) (19th centurty Novel, Shakespeare) was a University Lecturer in English Literature at Trinity College, Dublin from 1974 to 1990. She taught across a wide range of subjects including Drama (Shakespeare), The Novel (19th century fiction) and Anglo-Irish literature. Since returning to England she has taught for Cambridge Colleges, The Open University, the Cambridge University International Summer School and the United States Educational Courses Programs Abroad. She has published widely on twentieth-century Irish women writers, Anglo-Irish writers and is a regular broadcaster for the BBC. Tamsin has made a series of feature programs for BBC radio and has produced a series of audiotapes about Cambridge University and the Colleges for The American Friends of Cambridge University. Tamsin also works as a counsel in the Cambridge University Student Counselling Service.

ROBERT SMALLWOOD is Deputy Director and Head of Education at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and an Honorary Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute. He has special responsibility for the Trust's and Institute's programs with British and overseas universities. He is editor of "King John" in the New Penguin Shakespeare and edited the volumes of essays on Shakespearean roles entitled "Players of Shakespeare". He is a regular reviewer of RSC productions for the Shakespeare Quarterly.

 IRVING WARDLE (Drama Criticism) was the Drama Critic of the Independent on Sunday from 1990 to 1995. He served as Deputy Drama Critic of the Observer from 1960 to 1963 and Drama Critic of The Times from 1963 to 1989. His books include "The Theatres of George Devine" (1978) and "Theatre Criticism" (1992).

MARK WING-DAVEY (Directing) has directly extensively on both sides of the Atlantic in some of the finest professional theatres. In 2003 he directed Henry V for The Public Theatre/New York Shakespeare Festival. He directed the UK premiere of Bat Boy the Musical for the West Yorkshire Playhouse, which opened at the Shaftesbury theatre, London, September 2004. Other projects include Dirty Dancing, which opens at the Theatre Royal, Sydney, November 2004; The Provok'd Wife for American Repertory Theater in Cambridge Massachusetts, December 2004, and a Broadway play in early 2005.

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