1623 Theatre Company
1623 Theatre Company produce Shakespeare in non-traditional spaces,
including museums and galleries, a disused quarry, gardens, and a
former brewery. The site gives details of the company and its productions
and workshops, how to contact them and a lot of photographs.
ACTER
A project, organised by the University of North Carolina, which tours
actors from the English stage around university campuses and high
schools in the US, presenting Shakespeare plays and doing residencies.
There's a lt of interesting detail here.
Brentwood Shakespeare Company
(Amateur) Details of readings, the Brentwood Theatre, press cuttings,
auditions and their next production.
The Castle Players
The Castle Players are based in Barnard Castle, County Durham, and
specialise in open-air Shakespearean productions in the grounds of
the Bowes Museum.
Creation Theatre Company
Based in Oxford, Creation specialise in site-specific productions
of Shakespeare. There's a great deal of info on the site, although
it is still under construction.
Derby Shakespeare Theatre Company
Founded over 90 years ago, this amateur society specialises in but does not restrict itself to Shakespeare. There are details about the company, its past (including a list of productions) and future, and merchandise available.
The English Shakespeare Company
The company's official site.
The Farnham Shakespeare
Company
An amateur company which concentrates on Shakespearean productions.
Glasgow Repertory Company
A Glasgow company that specialises in Shakespeare. The site features
its shows, booking, its history, its sponsors and its education work.
It does tend to be a bit wordy.
Judith Shakespeare
Company
A New York-based company, a not-for-profit theatre ensemble dedicated
to discovering what lies at the heart of a great play through the
exploration of its language; and to re-examining the roles for women
in classical theatre. The reason for the somewhat odd name is explained
on the first page. Listed here because it is unique: there is certainly
nothing like it in the UK.
Kent Countryside Productions
An amateur group based in Faversham. This company seems to do only one production a year and that seems to be Shakespeare. There's a page about their next and last productions, with some subsidiary pages giving very few details indeed.
The London Shakespeare Workout
Not a theatre company, but a number of projects through which actors, prisoners, school children and terminal cancer patients develop their skills of self-expression through the medium of Shakespeare's language. The organisers call it a "gym for the Bard." There's a lot of interesting content here.
The Original Shakespeare Company
Actors in Shakespeare's day, it appears, never saw the complete script of a play - they only has their own words, plus two or three words as cues. Nor did they rehearse with the rest of the cast - the first time they came together was on the first performance. The Original Shakespeare Company attempts to recreate the original way of working. This site explains how. Fascinating!
The Royal National Theatre
The National isn't all Shakespeare, of course, but he is an important part of the theatre's output - and it's an excellent site anyway!
Richmond Shakespeare Society
(Twickenham) This amateur company does ten plays a year, at least two of which are Shakespeare. The site currently features their forthcoming (July 2000) open-air production of Much Ado About Nothing. There's a list of characters, details of the venue and ther production, and details on how to book tickets.
The Royal Shakespeare Company
The company everyone thinks of when Shakespeare is mentioned!
The RSC's
Pictures and Exhibitions Collection
The collection is a digital resource of photographs, paintings, costumes,
designs, prompt books, and records from productions from the Royal
Shakespeare Company. Supported by the New Opportunities Fund, the
anthology of pictures and exhibits is an on-line archive for students,
scholars, theatregoers and anyone interested in Shakespeare in performance.
Part of the RSC's website, but definitely worthy of a separate listing!
Yahoo RSC Club
A message board devoted purely to the discussion of the RSC and its work, set up by an American fan.
Shakespeare 4 Kidz
A company dedicated to taking Shakespeare into primary schools in the UK. There are details of its programme, workshops on Dream, and assistance to junior schools wanting to do Dream or Romeo and Juliet as a school play, including a specially rewritten and shortened version of the text, plus associated music and a Teacher's Guide.
The Work of Shakespeare 4 Kidz
One of my own features, looking at the work of the company in some detail.
The Shakespeare Experience
Another of my own past features: a review of the English Shakespeare
Company's Shakespeare Experience Romeo and Juliet.
Shakespeare
at the Tobacco Factory
A company based at Bristol's Tobacco Factory. Thee are pages on the
company itself and its productions, including reviews. here's the
possibility fo onlne booking and an appeal for financial support.
Shakespeare Players
An amateur company based at the Friedrich-Ebert-Oberschule in Berlin
and performing Shakespeare only. There are details of how the group
started, its members and its productions, as well as a lot of photographs.
Southsea Shakespeare Actors
Hampshire. Formed in 1947, this was the first non-professional company
in the world to do the entire Shakespeare canon - and they've done
it twice! They don't only do Shakespeare - Peter Shaeffer is in their
current season. A beautifully designed site which plans to have QuickTime
movies and .wav files in the near future.
The Stratford
(Ontario) Shakespeare Festival
Part of Scene Changes, a site devoted to Canadian theatre, but the
Stratford Shakespeare Festival is certainly of British Theatre interest.
It consists of reviews by Jeniva Berger.
Works Well Productions
Formed in 2000 to "create a forum for original and innovative
work relating to the works of Shakespeare." Details about their
plays, lectures and workshops, the company itself, tour dates and
an information request form.
