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For four days, all the campus is a stage, and all the students (and faculty and neighbors) merely players.

The Royal Shakespeare Company returns to �ʼһ��� to hold a residency from Sept. 8-11. They’ll offer workshops on directing, acting and teaching; some exclusively available to students, while others will be open to faculty, staff and the community. Many of these workshops will center on Friday’s film screening of the RSC’s gender-reversed production of The Taming of the Shrew, with a panel discussion following.

Endlessly Adaptable William

What is it about Shakespeare that keeps audiences and readers returning to examine 16th century works in new ways, generation after generation? Sutch credits this to a winning combination: how Shakespeare wrote (beautifully) as well as the subjects he wrote about (timeless).  

“Shakespeare didn’t write as many plays about contemporary England as other playwrights of that era did, so his plays don’t contain as many dated and obscure references,” Sutch said. “He was also clearly more interested in the universal. He addressed contemporary issues of his time by using fantasy, mythology and history, which are still relevant to us today.”

For all the universality of Shakespearean texts, that same universality didn’t extend to Shakespearean performances—which, for a while, were all male, and, for a much longer while, were nearly all white. Directors, actors and critics are challenging that. Think of last year’s film The Tragedy of Macbeth by Joel Coen, which starred Denzel Washington as Macbeth, or this year’s Also this year, at his birthplace and final residence. Or, closer to home, there’s , Charlotte’s all-female Shakespeare company.

“Shakespeare’s works are so rich, provocative, and evocative that they provide endless, bottomless opportunities for thinking and imagining,” said Cynthia Lewis, the Charles A. Dana Professor of English. “Whether you’re analyzing a play from an academic standpoint, staging a play according to a new vision, or adapting a play to an entirely new version, the creativity within and inspired by Shakespeare’s canon never runs dry.”

Inviting a Wide Audience

Lambert attended past residencies of RSC at �ʼһ���, and she said the effects of putting many Shakespeare lovers together continued long after the residency ended: introductions became auditions, strangers became collaborators.

“That’s the kind of connective tissue that is formed when you have a residency like this,” she said. Lambert also says that the actors she saw during past RSC residencies have gone on to appear in everything from Masterpiece Theater to Marvel movies.

Lewis not only hopes to see lots of faces at the screening and workshops, but lots of different kinds of faces. This isn’t just for established Shakespeare devotees. Lewis has a former student who’s bringing her fourth-grade daughter to a workshop. The girl studied Shakespeare at school and wants to learn more.

“That’s the kind of curiosity and passion this residency will cultivate,” Lewis said.

Lambert hopes the residency also will draw people who are new to Shakespeare, or even those who may think they’re not the Shakespeare type.

“There can’t be a better and easier doorway into Shakespeare than through the Royal Shakespeare Company. This whole series will have something for everyone,” Lambert said. “They are going to bend over backwards to make this entertaining and fun and frolicking. I cannot wait. I am thrilled.”