The Rose Playhouse

During the Elizabethan era, plays were performed outside, in the afternoon, with audience and actors fully visible to each other. In this webinar Dr Ildiko Solti will discuss the concept of shared-light playing at The Rose. She will explore some of the key principles and practices of shared-light playing, the audience’s role in a performance in full daylight and the intensity of experience that might produce.

Chris Constable (Southwark Archaeology), Ireneo Grosso (Pre-Construct Archaeology) and Antonietta Lerz (MoLA) will discuss some recent and ongoing excavations of the Roman borough, focusing on our growing understanding of burial archaeology and the expansive cemeteries to the south of the Roman town.

We think of Shakespeare as the ultimate solo genius, standing aloof from his fellows and communing only with his muse. In this talk we push him off this pedestal — or, at least, give a leg-up to lots of other contributors to Team Shakespeare. The early modern theatre was a joint enterprise, and recent scholarship has identified collaborative writing, too. A more collegial figure emerges: gaining creative energy from contact with others, in the rehearsal room, the writing room and the print shop.

In this light-hearted but informative talk, Tiffany Stern explores the story of Shakespeare’s loos. She examines the use and placement of jakes, close stools and chamber pots, as well as methods for relieving oneself outside. She then looks at the range of materials that might be used before the invention of loo paper. Understanding loos can help reveal aspects of Shakespeare’s subtext, she argues, but, equally, plays could be the subtext, or matter, of loos.

A trip to Bankside in 1600 might well have included a visit to an animal baiting arena. What was baiting, who was doing it, and how did activities differ between London and elsewhere? All these questions will be explored in my talk, which will give an overview of what is currently known of animal baiting, and present some emerging new findings from the AHRC-funded Box Office Bears project.

Using Edward Alleyn’s Diary (MS IX 1617–1622), letters and other documents from the Archive at Dulwich College, Calista Lucy, Keeper of the Archive, will consider some ideas around why and how Edward Alleyn turned himself from actor to gentleman farmer and philanthropist. There will be an opportunity at the end of the talk to look at Henslowe’s Diary, the Fortune Playhouse contract and the ‘platte’ (plot) for The Second Part of the Seven Deadly Sins.

In this “unfashionable essay”, Janet will talk about her take on directing Antony and Cleopatra (many years after her own Cleo at Stratford) with Sex and the City’s liberated Kim Cattrall, which will ring bells for those interested in Shakespeare’s inherently super-aware feminism. Who did Shakespeare have in mind with this part, unique among all the parts he wrote for women?

'Save thou my rose; in it thou art my all' (Sonnet 109) Presented by Paul Edmondson and Sir Stanley Wells. For the first time, all of Shakespeare’s sonnets — those published in 1609 and those to be found within the plays — have been presented in chronological order.

Ricky is the Artistic Director of Lazarus Theatre Company, which is the resident company at Greenwich Theatre. He will be sharing his experience of directing Christopher Marlowe's plays, focusing on Lazarus’s new digital ensemble production of Dr Faustus. He will also explore with us the challenges, opportunities and importance of staging Marlowe’s plays today.

Jonathan Livingstone, actor and Friend of The Rose Playhouse, presents a masterclass investigating Cymbeline and Tamburlaine in a quest to make the text ours. With fellow actors and a volunteer he will look at speeches by Imogen and Pisanio from Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and a speech by Marlowe’s eponymous Tamburlaine. This is a live workshop on how we can find ways of performing “difficult” text. Jonathan, interacting with some pre-selected volunteers, will show how this can be managed.

Harvey Sheldon, Chairman of the Rose Theatre Trust, will give a talk on the story of The Rose Playhouse, focusing on its discovery in 1989, the archaeological investigation and the campaign to save the site. He will be joined by Jane Sidell from Historic England.

Mudlarks are best described as amateur archaeologists, and Lara Maiklem is one of the best known. What began 20 years ago as a means of escape from the city's chaos has become an obsessive search for hidden history and the objects that Londoners lost or threw away. This talk will focus on the Thames at Bankside and the objects she has found dating from the 16th and early 17th centuries. Lara’s book, Mudlarking: Lost and Found on the River Thames, won the 2020 Indie Book Award for non-fiction.

Lizzie Willis and Doug Gardiner of Re-Shake Theatre will perform Norton and Sackville’s early Elizabethan play The Tragedie of Gorboduc in a version specially adapted for The Rose and introduced by Prof. Ken Pickering. Q&As will follow.

Andrew Wincott, in conversation with Rose volunteer Linda Shannon, will discuss his career in radio, theatre and audio, particularly his life in Ambridge as alter-ego Adam Macy. He has been acting professionally for almost 35 years, working in theatres all over the UK, and sometimes abroad. For nearly 20 years he’s played Adam in The Archers, celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2021, and Simon in the Sony Award-winning Clare in the Community for the BBC.

This live on-line presentation will take us through the latest developments and updates in the research to separate man from myth and give literal voice to a long-dead King of England. You will have an opportunity to learn some Medieval English pronunciation.

In 2008 Gary Andrews adapted Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol for him to perform in character as Dickens, with live piano accompaniment by his (late) wife, Joy. This year, he has produced a special 60-minute version to be streamed live online, with Joy’s recorded accompaniment, exclusively for The Rose. So why not ‘tune in’ to help you get into the spirit of the season with this evergreen classic?

Carols Songs and Tunes from the 16th Century. Join acclaimed musicians Chris Green and Sophie Matthews for Christmas 16th-century-style! Featuring a host of midwinter songs, festive carols and rousing tunes played on a variety of authentic period instruments, Drive The Cold Winter Away will transport you back to Yuletides Past.

In Spring 2022, The Shakespeare North Playhouse will open on the outskirts of Liverpool in Knowsley, near the site of the first known Elizabethan indoor theatre built outside London. Professor Kathy Dacre has been a major force behind the creation of the Playhouse.

A talk by Frank Whately. The actor Edward Alleyn will forever be associated with the stage of the Bankside Rose and, especially, with the great Marlovian roles of Tamburlaine and Doctor Faustus. Frank Whately will explore Alleyn’s acting career to discover that he was a player of greater variety than is implied by the roles which have so often been used to define him.

An Actor's Perspective: Leading actor and Shakespeare scholar Michael Pennington discusses how the dramatist’s writing was affected by the nature of the theatres for which he wrote, so very different from those of today. He argues that he and his actors developed a technique that allowed them both the cinematic intimacy and the heroic scale appropriate to the Rose and the Globe and other playhouses.

This talk will present some of the more unusual uses of plants that arise in Shakespearean scripts. The traditional and structural use of remedies, flowers and poisons were a poetic core of the Shakespearean world. Some of the elements of our modern health practices are easily recognised; others are hidden amid more complicated political narratives.

OVO theatre company has been navigating these choppy waters and trying to keep live performance afloat with a number of innovative responses — from a Zoom reincarnation of its production of Twelfth Night, originally commissioned by The Rose Playhouse in 2019, to a 3-week open air festival at the Roman Theatre of St Albans, featuring new socially distanced adaptations of Henry V and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Philip Henslowe has, for years, been thought of as a one-dimensional character whose image has changed, over time, from that of a shady moneylender to a financier to an entrepreneur. In this webinar, Prof. Cerasano will discuss a few of the ways in which her research fleshes out and recasts Henslowe’s biography beyond this narrow image.

Tamburlaine, Faustus, Barabas and Edward II; During this talk, Ken will discuss various approaches to and interpretations of these great roles in the plays of Marlowe, many of which were first seen at The Rose.

Over two lectures, Janet will take us through two specific passages in her formidable career. This first one describes her experience of directing Othello — a banned play — in apartheid South Africa, which has many resonances for the Black Lives Matter movement right now.

Professor Joanne Tompkins, The University of Queensland, will give a presentation which builds on research into the Rose Playhouse as a venue for the performance of early modern plays such as Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. The investigation deploys virtual reality technology to explore the construction of the venue, the conditions for staging and the effects of being ‘immersed’ in the venue.

An Artist's journey - join Adrian as he travels through lockdown from Leopoldstadt to horticultural displacement activities using poetry, monologues, diary entries, song, rumination, tragedy, visuals, Shakespeare, humour, allotments and, of course, the de rigueur Q&A session. (The inclusion of listed elements is subject to the artist's whim.)

Emily Carding and Kolbrun Sigfusdottir of Brite Theater present extracts from their award-winning Hamlet (an experience) and demonstrate their creative process, Followed by a Q & A session.

When the Polesden Lacey Shakespeare Company’s open-air production of Romeo and Juliet was cancelled this year due to the lockdown, director Gary Andrews was determined that it wouldn’t disappear without a trace. This is the story of how the company responded to the situation and the challenges this threw up (and the solutions they came up with).

Following their 3-night run of A Brief History of Music at the Rose last year, GreenMatthews return to present a special programme of music from the time of Shakespeare. Performed on authentic instruments, the 45-minute concert creates a vivid soundscape of the Elizabethan and Jacobean world. There will also be a question and answer session at the end of the concert.

Emily Carding will perform an extract from her show on Richard III performed at The Rose Playhouse. This will be followed by a short talk about how it originated and will also include a Q&A session.

David will be talking about his experience of setting up the Renaissance Theatre Company with Kenneth Branagh, and about his career as a film producer, including Shakespeare in Love, which features a reconstruction of the Rose as one of its main characters and it won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the 71st Academy Awards.

A 15 min virtual talk followed by a Q&A . Kathy Dacre is ...........and will talk about the project

Guided walk around Barbican and Clerkenwell, focusing on the principal actor of the Rose Playhouse, Edward Alleyn in the Elizabethan era.

Come along to hear about the Food and Table Manners of the early Bankside Rose Playhouse and surrounding area, including the rented rooms and more noble houses. Did they behave like us today?

Yvonne Morley-Chisholm will present the research that is currently in progress to give literal voice to the late King Richard III, based on evidence being examined since the discovery of his skeleton. The presentation will also include a brief sample of the Original Medieval Pronunciation. Yvonne works in theatre, film, television and with voice-over artists.

Come and join us to celebrate Christmas with Carols, mince pies & mulled wine; Actors Rechoired will be putting on a selection of carols with a chance to join in.

Join us for a walking tour all about the extraordinary life of Edward Alleyn, the principal actor at The Rose Playhouse in the 16th Century. Amble along the streets of London with our knowledgable volunteer, visiting Alleyn's playhouses and learning about Tudor theatre practice. The 2-hour tour will start at Moorgate Underground station and end at Farringdon Underground station, via theatre sites in the Barbican and Clerkenwell, and also the office of the Master of the Revels.

Join us for a walking tour all about the extraordinary life of Edward Alleyn, the principal actor at The Rose Playhouse in the 16th Century. Amble along the streets of London with our knowledgable volunteer, visiting Alleyn's playhouses and learning about Tudor theatre practice. The 2-hour tour will start at Moorgate Underground station and end at Farringdon Underground station, via theatre sites in the Barbican and Clerkenwell, and also the office of the Master of the Revels.

Professor Tiffany Stern Early, Modern Drama specialist at the Shakespeare Institute of University of Birmingham and a Fellow of the British Academy will talk about staging, walking and speaking for Tragic Performances. She has taught and lectured internationally, and published, edited and contributed to numerous books on the practical side of early modern performance, and is editor of this year’s Rethinking Theatrical Documents in Shakespeare's England.

Anərkē Shakespeare, a new innovative theatre company, creates raw fast-paced Shakespeare, bringing you the multifaceted text by a diverse, gender-blind, actor-led ensemble without a director, inspired by the working conditions in which Shakespeare conceived his plays. The audience, together with the cast, will work imagination bringing to life the sceptred isle of England, in this film noir, naked-framed perspective of Richard II – Shakespeare’s poetic masterpiece.