NEWS
Royal Shakespeare Company Learning Residency at Davidson College
The Taming of the Shrew Photo by Ikin Yum
A weekend of workshops, screenings, and other events
Davidson College is excited to again welcome members of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), visiting in early September for a weekend of workshops, screenings, and other events.
The RSC’s Learning Residence at Davidson College takes place Thursday, September 8 through Sunday, September 11. The residency will center on a film of the company’s 2019 gender-reversed production of The Taming of the Shrew, to be screened twice.
Royal Shakespeare Company photo by Ikin Yum
“Many of us were fortunate to work with the RSC in the early 2000s, with several landmark residencies here that not only brought Shakespeare’s canon into vivid focus for our students across the curriculum, but inspired scores of Davidson alumni who are now working theater professionals,” said Cynthia Lewis, Dana Professor of English. “We’re thrilled to continue our RSC collaboration with this learning residency.”
Events include a panel discussion following the Friday evening screening of Shrew, a conversation with Leigh Toney regarding the Mantel adaptation, workshops involving how the RSC approaches various issues involved in tackling Shakespeare, pedagogical workshops, acting workshops, and more! Most events are open to the public, though some require pre-registration.
RSC members involved in the residency are Joseph Arkley, a trained educator who played the role of Katherina in Shrew; Leigh Toney, the assistant director for Shrew who is currently working on a dramatic adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s massive novel The Mirror and the Light; Tom King, Learning Partnerships Manager at the RSC and another experienced educator; and Victoria Cholmondeley, Education Partnerships Manager at the RSC.
The RSC first visited Davidson College in early 2002, with a 12-day academic and performance residency that inaugurated Duke Family Performance Hall in the college’s newly opened Knobloch Campus Center. Hundreds of local and national theater devotees—and initiates—were treated to the RSC’s Merchant of Venice, along with college students, faculty, and staff. Subsequent residencies brought Two Gentlemen of Verona, Julius Caesar, Pericles, and The Winter’s Tale, as well the rich opportunity for faculty and students to work with and learn from the actors, directors, and designers on campus for weeks at a time.
For information on specific events and how to sign up for them, please click here: www.davidson.edu/arts/rsc-residency.
