ASC Attends Shakespeare Theatre Association's Annual Conference

Artistic Director Jeff Watkins and Director of Education and Training Laura Cole, of The Atlanta Shakespeare Company have joined delegates from over 150 Shakespeare-producing theatres and festivals from the USA and Canada attending the twentieth annual conference of the Shakespeare Theatre Association of America (STAA) this week at Shakespeare's Globe in London.

The conference programme, entitled Who Owns Shakespeare?, has been devised in cooperation with the current President of STAA, Philip Sneed, Artistic Director of the Colorado Shakespeare Festival, and runs until January 10. Peter Kyle, Chief Executive of Shakespeare's Globe, Dominic Dromgoole, Artistic Director, and Patrick Spottiswoode, Director, Globe Education will all lead sessions during the conference. Adrian Noble, former artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company will be a guest speaker.

Delegates will be taken on a private visit to Middle Temple Hall, the venue of the first recorded performance of Twelfth Night where Tim Carroll, former Associate Theatre Director at Shakespeare's Globe, will explore the influence of playing spaces on performance. Tim Carroll directed Twelfth Night at Middle Temple Hall before its transfer to the Globe for the play's 400th anniversary in 2002.

Patrick Spottiswoode, who is also a member of the STAA Executive Committee, says: "Shakespeare's Globe is honoured to be hosting this conference and looks forward to discussing key issues of ownership with fellow artistic, managing and education directors including the influence of the recession on choices of repertoire, who really owns Shakespeare's text, how theatres are responding to changing demographics and reaching out to new audiences, particularly youth. Young people taking ownership of Shakespeare has always been at the heart of our work at the Globe - a theatre where actors and audiences share the same light."