Since the 2002 and 2004 Institutes, there has been a new focus on approaching Shakespeare via performance, particularly vis-à-vis teaching—take for example Domnica Radescu’s The Theater of Teaching and the Lessons of Theater, Paul Menzer’s Inside Shakespeare: Essays on the Blackfriars Stage, or Alan Dessen’s Recovering Shakespeare’s Theatrical Vocabulary. The 2008 Institute will further this trend and bring it new energy. Such a claim comes with the assurance not only of my thirty-six years in the classroom but also on the basis of the previous programs. Participants in those programs have already made the lessons of the Institutes a part of their teaching and their scholarship. Some have directed plays for the first time using Shakespeare’s own staging as their guide. Others have been doing further research into the ways in which original staging opens the text. Denise Whalen of Vassar College, for example, was a featured speaker at 2003’s Shakespeare Theater Association—a rare instance in which an academic was invited to address a professional theatre group—and she spoke on the contributions made to her thinking by 2002’s Institute. Theatre professors Joe Ricke, Elizabeth Swain, and Todd Lidh, among others from the 2002 Institute, directed plays based on what they had learned at the Blackfriars, and later presented papers on the results of their work at the Second Blackfriars Conference. English Professors Melissa Aaron, Bob Madison, Jennifer Matisoff, and Roger Ochse also gave presentations at that conference. The same gratifying pattern seems to be holding for the 2004 participants. Several have joined the Shakespeare Association of America and are participating in its seminars; twelve (almost half) are submitting papers to the Third Blackfriars Conference, and Laury Magnus has already had accepted an article on Merchant of Venice in which she compares an original production at Blackfriars to the Pacino film of the play, with special attention to its difficult political issues. We attach as an appendix the program from the Third Blackfriars Conference, and we have marked all of the papers and workshops of alumni of the Institutes. Our evaluations include such remarks as the following, each from a different evaluator (to show the continuity of response, we have included comments from 2002):
This Institute was the single most important thing that has happened to me intellectually and professionally since I completed my master's thesis in 1974. Not to be flippant, I have rediscovered my inner nerd. (Evaluator #1, 2004)
I have used the NEH experience in every class I have subsequently taught, and it informs all of my current scholarship. Hands-down, it was the best academic experience of my entire life, and was a watershed in my understanding of Shakespeare and early modern performance. (Evaluator #2, 2004)
Since the Institute, I have been able to inform my Shakespeare acting classes with knowledge derived at the Institute. The NEH Institute, in its unusual, but essential, wedding of the scholarly and the practical was directly responsible for the honing of my work (Evaluator #3, 2004)
This Institute was superb. It fulfilled its goal of combining academic and theatrical approaches to Shakespeare studies and went far beyond that goal by applying that information creatively on the spot. (Evaluator #4, 2004)
It was fulfilling in every way. Intellectually, I feel I have reconnected with vital strands of contemporary Shakespeare studies. [The Institute] brought in some fantastic scholars who talked about ongoing research …relevant to my teaching and research … Being able to work on that stage with the talented and amiable actors was vital. (Evaluator #5, 2004)
The opportunity to work with the actors and to experience for myself the qualities of both of Shakespeare’s playhouses was invaluable and could not be replicated any other way. I am changing my …Shakespeare courses to reflect this experience. (Evaluator #1, 2002)
Cohen and the American Shakespeare Center organization have successfully accomplished something that is ten times more complex than anything I ever envisioned…I have to mention that I think something truly remarkable is going on at the Blackfriars in Staunton in terms of the recovery of original performance practices… (Evaluator #2, 2002)
The Institute was the best professional development experience that I have had the privilege of
sharing. (Evaluator #3, 2002)
Both within the Shakespeare Association of America and within the College English Association, the alumni of these groups have created panels and sessions devoted to the literary and pedagogical implications of studies in original staging. They have not only written widely and often out of that experience, many of them have directed their own productions or served as dramaturges for others. Here is what Stephen Booth, one of our visiting scholars, has to say about the influence of the experience: