Lancastrian Shakespeare

Religion, Region, Patronage and Performance (July 1999)

Religion and Theatre: Lancastrian Shakespeare, and Religion, Region and Patronage: Lancastrian Shakespeare, ed. Richard Dutton, Alison Findlay and Richard Wilson (Manchester University Press, 2003). This international conference focused round the playwright’s connections with north-west England, the importance of touring theatre and household performance.

 The New Shakespeare: A writer and his readers. The Return of the Author in Shakespeare Studies

3 July 2004

The Shakespeare Programme at Lancaster University, in conjunction with Manchester University Press, hosted this one-day conference. The plenary Speakers were Lukas Erne, Gary Taylor, and Stanley Wells.

The possibility that Shakespeare did not write primarily for theatre audiences, but with readers in mind, has far-reaching implications for the study and performance of his plays. The aim of this conference was to situate the emerging ideas of Shakespeare as a literary artist in relation to his own representation of writing and reading, and in the context of the history of authorship, printing, manuscript circulation, great house culture, private patronage, and the non-metropolitan stage. The conference took place at John of Gaunt’s castle, in the heart of historic Lancaster.