The Rose Bruford International Research Centre for Voice and Speech
Voicing Shakespeare
A 3 year research project, 2009/2012, resulting in a designated website, articles and in house publications, with associated events scheduled during the research process.
Project Directors: Professor Nesta Jones, RBC Director of Research; Tess Dignan MA, RBC Head of Voice; and Professor Simon Trussler, RBC Senior Research Fellow. Other RBC Staff and Associate Researchers will be involved during the research period.
Research question: Why and how should Shakespeare’s language be kept alive? The perspective will be culturally specific in relation to the playwright’s roots and development, with an examination of its routes into intercultural and multicultural manifestations. Thus consideration will be given to the ‘many voices’ that find value in speaking Shakespeare. Shakespeare is one of the ten themes of the Cultural Olympiad.
The research will focus on three areas:
- Selected local and regional Primary & Secondary Schools and FE Colleges.
- CDS and other institutions and organisations involved in or supporting training.
- Actors, directors, voice coaches, designers, companies, and venues.
The research will be structured in three phases broadly following three academic years with a fourth to complete intended outcomes:
- 1. Mapping and creating the agenda internally and externally; defining and breaking ‘the rules’; building a bibliography of published material in a variety of forms; sourcing and applying for external funding; establishing a twenty-first century Shakespeare laboratory at RBC at the annual symposium (April 2010); and initial website design.
- 2. Firming partnerships nationally and internationally; recording and transcribing interviews; establishing an online laboratory; holding research seminars and masterclasses; disseminating material at the RBC annual symposium (April 2011); finalising website design; and preparing publications.
- 3. Website live; publications in progress; and dissemination at RBC’s annual symposium including an international conference (April 2012).
The project will be funded by internal and external research grants.
