Why Global Shakespeare?
The idea that Shakespeare is a global author has taken many forms since the building of the Globe playhouse. The digital project Global Shakespeareshonors the fact and demonstrates the diversity of the world-wide reception and production of Shakespeare’s plays in ways that we hope will nourish the remarkable array of new forms of cultural exchange that the digital age has made possible.
Examples showcasing the richness of world-wide performances of Shakespeare in English, American sign language, other languages, and a wide range of styles and genres: Global Shakespeares' YouTube channel
What Global Shakespeares Provides
The Global Shakespeares Video & Performance Archive is a collaborative project co-founded by Alex Huang (George Washington University and MIT) and Peter Donaldson (MIT). It provides FREE online access to performances of Shakespeare from many parts of the world as well as essays and metadata provided by scholars and educators in the field.
Global Shakespeares is a participatory multi-centric networked model that offers wide access to international performances that are changing how we understand Shakespeare’s plays and the world. Global Shakespeares provides global, regional, and national portals to Shakespeare productions within a federated structure.
How to Use Global Shakespeares
- Write multimedia essays with citations of video clips (stable link)
- Provide a global perspective in class
- Compare and contrast different cultures' interpretations of the same scene and the diverse meanings of Shakespearean passages
- Compare and contrast the ways in which Shakespeare's plays are received in different cultures
- Performance history
- History of globalization and reception
- Presentations baed on students' individually curated video collections
- Collaborative adaptation projects
Further Reading
"The Global Influence of Shakespeare," GW Today
Alexander Huang, "Global Shakespeare 2.0 and the Task of the Performance Archive." Shakespeare Survey 64 (2011), 38-51. [Full Text]
"Bringing Shakespeare to Life," GW Hatchet
"All the World's a Stage," GW English News
Using