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This project created a new space for public debate surrounding the World Shakespeare Festival, which was a key strand in the UK's 2012 Cultural Olympiad. By creating a collaborative online forum that invited cultural conversation, the project facilitated discussion about the role of Shakespeare and the arts in twenty-first century culture as well as generating the only complete, critical, and publicly-accessible account of the largest intercultural celebration of Shakespeare ever staged. The project is an examplar of interdependent research and impact.
Dr Nicoleta Cinpoeş's research played an instrumental role in opening up a `cultural space' in Romania for revised public understanding of, and engagement with, Shakespeare's plays, through: (i) dismantling formerly entrenched distinctions, in Romania, between academic scholars' engagement with Shakespeare and the engagement of professional theatre makers and critics; (ii) seeding discussion and consideration amongst theatre makers, young people in formal education and the general public, of recuperation of Shakespeare in Romania through achievement of an uncensored history of appropriation and, within that project, of new, `clean' translations of the plays; (iii) supporting new translations of Shakespeare's plays directly, by providing rigorous, non- specialist, reader-friendly introductions that trace individual plays' stage and textual histories, as well as provide an up-to-date survey of their reception in criticism, stage practice and film adaptation.
The 19th century essayist William Hazlitt is a great, but neglected, master of English prose. Uttara Natarajan's research into his writings is a major factor in the revival of public interest of his multi-faceted achievement. She has led public discussions of his works and life at the Hazlitt Society and Hazlitt Day School, both of which she co-founded. In 2008, she launched the annual Hazlitt Review which reaches a wide general readership and academics. Her study has led to a range of invited public engagements, such as speaking on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time-William Hazlitt programme and delivering various public lectures.
Academics at King's have long been involved in the editing of Shakespeare. Their editions have benefited school students and teachers, general readers, and theatre practitioners. Here we describe the impact which two King's-edited plays have had on theatrical performances and cultural life. Both were published in the Arden Shakespeare series, the general editorship of which has been located at King's for nearly 30 years. Hamlet and King Henry the Eighth, edited by Ann Thompson (co-editor, with Neil Taylor) and Gordon McMullan respectively, were used in major theatrical productions by the RSC in 2009 and Shakespeare's Globe in 2010. Impact is demonstrable in sales figures, directors' statements, viewing figures, and in related media appearances by Thompson and McMullan.
The impact of Graham Holderness's work lies in the establishment of a synergy between academic research and the professional practice of a successful dramatist, Sulayman Al-Bassam, whose adaptations of Shakespeare into Arabic have played in theatres on four continents. Originating as a critical study, the research developed, via direct engagement with the writer, into a public `conversation', thus giving ideas derived from the research a global reach. The insights of the research have been both internalised in the plays and disseminated via accompanying public events, thus conveying them to the audiences attending the performances. This continuing rapprochement reveals a demonstrable influence of the research over the writer's artistic choices.
Professor Tiffany Stern's research into 16-18th Century theatre performance has restored a significant element of the cultural heritage to public understanding and has led to the creation of new cultural capital through her influence on present-day theatrical interpretations of Early Modern texts in England and America. She has also influenced the construction and use of theatrical spaces in both countries through her work as a historical advisor to theatre companies and cultural organisations. These direct influences have been supported by educational work with the general public and schools, in the form of lectures, podcasts, and interviews with newspapers and journals.
As a result of his research using new techniques in the digital analysis and visualisation of Shakespeare's language Professor Jonathan Hope was invited to work with the company of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. Hope's findings highlighted unusual interaction patterns between characters, a focus on objects (props), and very frequent references to space and movement in the language of the play. Actors used Hope's research findings to inform rehearsal and performance of the play which was performed to 14,509 teachers and pupils from more than 100 London schools over a two-week period in February and March 2012. Hope's engagement with the Globe Theatre has generated impact through its effect on the actors and their performances, through the pupils' engagement with the play, and in its contribution to the Globe Theatre's status as a national leading arts educational organisation. The impact has been extended to the 2013 schools production of Romeo and Juliet, playing to 16,325 school teachers and pupils from 128 schools.
Directly inspired by the research of Rüdiger Görner, in the autumn of 2010 the Globe Theatre and the Goethe Institute in London staged a season of lectures, performances, readings and films entitled `Shakespeare is German'. This materially affected the cultural life of the capital, notably in the direction of 'conserving, preserving and presenting transnational cultural heritage'; it broadened the horizons of more than two thousand attendees; it had a resonance in the media which marked a clear shift in popular conceptions of Anglo-German cultural relations; and it continued to resonate in both countries long after the actual season finished.
This study focuses on research which has been of benefit to the Educational Shakespeare Company (ESC) and to its various users, both local and international. The ESC is a Belfast charity (XR40787) that deploys drama and film in therapeutic applications with socially excluded groups (prisoners, those on probation, the homeless and youth at risk). In 2006, the ESC produced Mickey B, a film adaptation of Macbeth made in Maghaberry, Northern Ireland's maximum security prison, with a cross-community group of life-prisoners. Research by Burnett and Wray — on Mickey B, the ESC's work more broadly, and the place of independent local filmmaking inside Shakespearean cinema — has had these impacts:
In collaboration with the HK Education Bureau, the British Council, theatre practitioners, teachers and school pupils and answering to their needs, Shakespeare in Hong Kong examined the current role and reception of the world's most studied author in order to reconfigure his work as a site for the debate of issues facing the people of Hong Kong today, thereby opening it to intercultural dialogue. The project induced policy change in the British Council's Shakespeare World Wide Classroom project as well as with the Hong Kong Education Bureau, influencing curriculum and informing cultural content regarding race, gender, sexuality, class and colonialism.