Professor Robert Shaughnessy
About
Biography
Before joining GSA in 2017 I was Professor of Theatre at the University of Kent; prior to that I held posts at Roehampton University and the University of the West of England. My work engages with theatre history and contemporary performance, with a particular emphasis on Shakespeare both then and now.
ResearchResearch interests
I research Shakespeare in performance, and, more broadly, of the arts in their political and cultural contexts, historically and in the present. I have published work on contemporary playwrights, practitioners and companies, Shakespeare’s contemporaries, and on eighteenth century actors. My current research has two strands. My recent work as a theatre historian is represented by three monographs: About Shakespeare (CUP, 2020), As You Like It (MUP, 2017), and Shakespeare in the Theatre: The National Theatre, 1963-1975: Olivier and Hall for Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare (2018). T
I take an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary theatre-making to investigate the notion of the ‘Shakespeare affect’, whether in the rehearsal room or in inclusive performance (in particular, Shakespeare for autistic participants), and I am currently engaged in collaborative research in applied Shakespeare.
I am a member of the editorial boards of Shakespeare and Literature Compass, and have acted as a peer reviewer for a wide range of publishers and, amongst others, for the AHRC, Hong Kong Research Grants Council, and the National Research Council of Canada.
Research collaborations
I am a Trustee of Flute Theatre, creating Shakespeare for inclusive audiences.
Research interests
I research Shakespeare in performance, and, more broadly, of the arts in their political and cultural contexts, historically and in the present. I have published work on contemporary playwrights, practitioners and companies, Shakespeare’s contemporaries, and on eighteenth century actors. My current research has two strands. My recent work as a theatre historian is represented by three monographs: About Shakespeare (CUP, 2020), As You Like It (MUP, 2017), and Shakespeare in the Theatre: The National Theatre, 1963-1975: Olivier and Hall for Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare (2018). T
I take an interdisciplinary approach to contemporary theatre-making to investigate the notion of the ‘Shakespeare affect’, whether in the rehearsal room or in inclusive performance (in particular, Shakespeare for autistic participants), and I am currently engaged in collaborative research in applied Shakespeare.
I am a member of the editorial boards of Shakespeare and Literature Compass, and have acted as a peer reviewer for a wide range of publishers and, amongst others, for the AHRC, Hong Kong Research Grants Council, and the National Research Council of Canada.
Research collaborations
I am a Trustee of Flute Theatre, creating Shakespeare for inclusive audiences.
Supervision
Postgraduate research supervision
I have supervised PhD projects ranging from Shakespeare in performance and on film to Meisner technique, the dramaturgy of contemporary dance, psychic distress in modern British theatre, and theatre and globalisation.
Postgraduate research supervision
Teaching
My teaching lies mainly in the areas of theatre and performance history, with a particular emphasis on Shakespeare and early modern drama in its own time and our own, as well as on the theatres of the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States from the twentieth century to the present. My approach rests upon a combination of practical exploration, close engagement with current professional practice, and with the primary materials of performance history through archive work, which I have introduced at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I teach Shakespeare through a company-based structure, and have pioneered the practical teaching of theatre history.
Publications
Highlights
About Shakespeare: Bodies, Spaces and Texts
Cambridge University Press, 2020
Shakespeare and the National Theatre, 1963-1975: Olivier and Hall
London: Arden Shakespeare, 2018.
Shakepeare in Performance: As You Like It
Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2017