Pictorial Shakespeare

University of Melbourne Collections, 2016

2015

The Performative Image and the Power of the Audience starts with a rejection of the assumption of spectatorial passivity, an assumption that lies at the foundation of even those theatrical theories which seek to activate and empower the audience. Instead, I take as a given that the audience is always already an active partner in the creation of art, and that every spectatorial interface is uniquely defined by the individual flesh and blood audience member. Proceeding from this point, I explore a wide variety of visual art pieces adapted from the dramatic work of William Shakespeare, presenting a case study in an experiential methodology, suggesting a reception theory based not on ideal or theoretical readers but on specific actual readers. My dissertation uses the concept of theatrum to analyze works such as Alphonse Mucha's Hamlet poster, Edward Gordon Craig's illustrated Hamlet for the Cranach Press, Frank Lloyd Wright's Romeo and Juliet windmill, and the Boydell Shake...

The ESSE Messenger, 2016

The present article seeks to provide a comprehensive annotated guide to the publications related to the field of Shakespeare on Screen for the period 2002-16. Conceived as an update to two articles previously published in The European English Messenger, its entries have been classified and annotated in four categories: the first section includes a list of bibliographies, filmographies and databases; the second features monographs and collections of essays focusing exclusively or substantially on the subject whereas the third deals with representative journals and specific journal issues. Published screenplays and other works on the making of the films are listed in the fourth section. A thoroughly revised, expanded and updated versión was published in the French journal Cahiers Élisabéthains in a special issue on Shakespeare on screen in the digital era (2021).

The symposium will investigate the iconographical and literary re-elaborations of Shakespearean characters, focusing on the exchanges between different contexts and cultures. From the 18th to the 20 th century, Shakespeare's characters underwent substantial transformations, reflecting the different aesthetic, ethical and social sensitivities of different historical periods, as well cross-fertilization with other cultural European traditions. The alteration of Shakespearean characters and their actions stands in a relationship of mutual influence with visual transpositions, and sometimes ends up modifying the perception of the original text. Papers will focus on prose and musical theatre, fine arts and literary adaptations/re-writings, with particular attention to the transpositions from one artistic medium to another.

Renaissance and Reformation

BELLS: Barcelona English Language and Literature Studies 9 (1998): 7-47., 1998

How did Elizabethan and Jacobean acting companies create their visual and aural effects? What materials were available to them and how did they influence staging and writing? What impact did the sensations of theatre have on early modern audiences? How did the construction of the playhouses contribute to technological innovations in the theatre? What effect might these innovations have had on the writing of plays? Shakespeare's Theatres and The Effects of Performance is a landmark collection of essays by leading international scholars addressing these and other questions to create a unique and comprehensive overview of the practicalities and realities of the theatre in the early modern period.

Studies in Costume & Performance, 2017