Hello, and welcome to our first Alternative Shakespeare update! There’s been lots of things going on for us over the last couple of months, and a lot more exciting news to come…so here’s what we’ve been up to recently!
New website
You might have noticed that we’ve had a bit of a website refresh here at Alternative Shakespeare. After many years of working hard in the shadows, we thought it was high time that our website had a makeover to let you know about what we do, how we work and what we’ve been working on.
We’ve even compiled a list of all our Alternative Shakespeare plays, so you can read about (and watch!) our productions, both past and present.
Our sister websites, Alternative Theatre and The Alternative Space have also had a bit of an upgrade – check them out!
Crowdfunder campaign
We kicked off April and May this year with a Crowdfunder campaign to help us finance the writing and publication of our new book, “Alternative Shakespeare: Keeping Shakespeare Alive, Not Dead”, which tells the story of our Alternative Shakespeare journey.
Over the last 20 years, we’ve produced 12 Alternative Shakespeare plays and spent hours and hours poring over his original works to mine them for new creative sparks, and we’d love to tell you more about our creative process.
We reached 88% of our target in the first 4 weeks and the first ideas for the book are now bouncing around, ready to be formulated into telling our story.
Keep your eyes peeled for more information in the coming months…
Now on YouTube
We’ve finally done it! Alternative Shakespeare now has its very own YouTube channel. We’ll be sharing clips from filmed performances of our Alternative Shakespeare plays, as well as videos on who we are and what we do, and even new pieces of digital theatre, workshop processes and video performances.
Workshops and Learning
In our many and various conversations on what we do in the last couple of weeks, we’ve come to realise that actually a large portion of what we do is workshops. So why don’t we talk more about that fact?!
We’re always working with people online and in-person to discuss Shakespeare and the wider theatre world, analyse plays and create new pieces of theatre – and we’d like more people to get involved. Whether you’re a student looking for work experience, an educational organisation looking to provide a different way of looking at Shakespeare, or just someone who’s interested in collaborating and creating new pieces of writing, we’ll have something for you.
More information will be released very soon, so watch this space!
Current projects
There’s always a lot going on where Alternative Shakespeare is concerned, so here’s what we’re currently working on…
Messengers in Shakespeare – a 3-person project looking at the role of messengers in Shakespeare’s plays – if they had their own words about their role as a messenger, and their own opinions on the events of their plays, what would they say?
Online workshops – working with actors and friends to workshop pieces of our established plays, as well as workshopping our new pieces of writing!
Writing our legacy – we’ve been beavering away in the background to make sure all of our existing works are getting the recognition they deserve – it’s an ongoing process…
Alternative Shakespeare Book – as we’ve already mentioned above, work is continuing on our “Keeping Shakespeare Alive, Not Dead” book project, with ideas aplenty.