Thanks to a generous bequest from the late Dr. Iris Annette Pearce, 91 enjoys a range of Shakespeare-related resources unique among American liberal arts colleges. The Pearce Shakespeare Endowment was established in 2007 to enrich courses in Shakespeare and support events for the entire campus.
Funds generated by Dr. Pearce’s gift aid Shakespeare studies through lectures by visiting scholars; conferences and symposia; support for research; productions of plays; periods of residence by performing artists; and other innovative programming to enhance Shakespeare at 91 and in the greater Memphis community. Key institutional partnerships have helped bring these events to a wide range of audiences.
'Students at 91 are granted singular access to the world of Shakespeare through the Pearce Endowment. Academics and artists come together to collaborate with different faculty, enhancing their classroom discussions. The programming acts in tandem with coursework, allowing students to delve deeper into their studies and to understand how Shakespeare’s work has shaped our modern world. The Pearce Endowment is essential in cultivating thoughtful, curious scholars; I find these lessons constantly relevant in my work!" — ’21, Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator,
Wednesday, March 18: “An Evening of Shakespeare: On the Dramaturg's Role in Contemporary Shakespearean Performance” with Dr. Musa Gurnis at the Meeman Center.
Location: Dorothy King Hall or Virtual
Time: 5:30-7:00pm
*Register for the session (scroll down past the course descriptions to find registration form.)
Description: Most of us have heard of directors, producers, lighting, sound, set, prop, costume designers, and more. But what exactly is a dramaturg? Drawing examples from her work with noted New York stage directors, as well as from developing devised projects directly with actors, Dr Gurnis will discuss the role of the dramaturg, the theatrical designer of embodied ideas. What does dramaturgy look like in contemporary performances of early modern classics? We will discuss selected scenes from Shakespeare and others to explore how a dramaturg might approach them to expand the text of a script into the world of a play.
Bio: (PhD Columbia) is a theater scholar and practitioner. She is the author of Mixed Faith and Shared Feeling: Theater in Post-Reformation London (U Penn/Folger), and co-editor of Publicity and the Early Modern Stage (Palgrave). She has dramaturged for Bedlam Theatre (NY), Red Bull (NY), Brave Spirits (DC), LABrynth (NY), and the Abbey National Theatre (Dublin). She co-wrote, with Eric Tucker, the award-winning Shakespeare mash-up web series BEDLAM. She has studied acting at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Red Bull Theater, and HB Studios; and performs both regionally and in New York (SAG-AFTRA/AEA). She created Red Bull’s Early Modern Scene Work Collaborative, bringing together early modern theater scholars and classical practitioners for rehearsal room research. Her directing credits include benefit readings of Daria Kolomiec’s documentary theater project Diary of War, sharing first-hand accounts of the full-scale invasion from Ukrainians of all walks of life in aid of Hospitallers, a volunteer organization of Ukrainian combat medics; as well as Tatienne Hendricks-Tellefsen’s one-woman apocalyptic anti-rom-com Horny for the End of the World. She was the associate director of the Private Theatre’s 2024/5 production of Roysten Coppenger’s translation of Ibsen’s Doll House.
Thursday, April 23: Prof. Ramie Targoff, “Beyond the Myth of Judith Shakespeare: Forging Women's Networks in the Poetry of Aemilia Lanyer,“
Time: 6-7:30pm
Location: Blount Auditorium, Buckman Hall
Description: On the anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birthday, it is worth thinking also about the women who lived in his world and struggled themselves to write. This lecture will begin by revisiting Virginia Woolf’s famous account of Shakespeare’s imaginary sister, Judith, and the challenges she might have faced were she endowed with the same gifts of her celebrated brother. We will then consider the true history of Aemilia Lanyer, a contemporary of Shakespeare’s who became the first woman to publish a book of her own poetry in 17th century England. In that book, she offered a startlingly feminist defense of Eve and argued for women’s liberty in relation to men. The talk will ultimately explore the ways in which Lanyer sought to create a community of powerful female readers and patrons to support her radical poetic project, challenging Woolf’s vision of the woman artist as a lonely and tortured genius.
Bio: is the Jehuda Reinharz Professor of Humanities, professor of English, and co-chair of Italian Studies at Brandeis University. She has written multiple books, including Posthumous Love: Eros and the Afterlife in Renaissance England (University of Chicago Press, 2014), Renaissance Woman: The Life of Vittoria Colonna (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2018), and most recently (Penguin Random House, 2024). Shakespeare’s Sisters was named one of the Best Books of 2024 by both The New Yorker and The Boston Globe.
This event is free and open to the public. is required.
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