‘Women and Shakespeare‘ Podcast features conversations with diverse women directors, actors, writers, and academics who are involved in making and interpreting Shakespeare. In the conversations, we find out both how Shakespeare is used to amplify the voices of women today and how women are redefining the world’s most famous writer. In this episode that will be launched with SRS, renowned actor, Dona Croll, talks about her experience of being the first black actor to play Cleopatra on the professional British stage, playing John of Gaunt in the all-women-of-colour production of Richard II at Shakespeare’s Globe, and about the politics of black actors in Shakespeare productions.
Funded by NYU (New York University), Series 1 of the ‘Women and Shakespeare’ podcast includes guests ranging from the Orwell prize-winning author, Dr Delia Jarett Macauley to Head of Higher Education and Research at Shakespeare’s Globe and Vice-President of the Shakespeare Association of America, Professor Farah Karim-Cooper, to multiple award-winning playwright Chris Bush. The series is designed to harness digital humanities to redress the gender and racial disparity in academic citational practices, public discourse, and rehearsal room power dynamics in the field of Shakespeare studies and performance.
This event will feature a streaming of the podcast, with an introduction, followed by discussion led by the creator of the Women and Shakespeare Dr Varsha Panjwani (NYU) and editor of the British Shakespeare Association’s Teaching Shakespeare magazine, Dr Sarah Olive (York).