A Cry Against Stage Plays: Shakespeare's Connections to the Mayflower Pt. 2
A Three-Session Digital Course on Shakespeare's Connections to the Mayflower
This program will be hosted online via Zoom. A link will be emailed to all registrants two hours before the program starts at 7 pm.
The Puritans' hatred of stage plays is such a commonplace that few people realize that there were direct connections between Shakespeare and the Pilgrims at Plymouth!
One Mayflower passenger was part of the 1609 Bermuda shipwreck that inspired The Tempest, and another knew Sir Francis Walsingham and Lord Burleigh, two Elizabethan courtiers often suggested as models for Hamlet's Polonius.
"A Cry Against Stage Plays" is a three-session course led by Richard Pickering, Plimoth Patuxet's Deputy Director and Chief Historian. In partnership with guest experts and performers, he will discuss these connections and also depict the colonists' impassioned feelings regarding London play-going by transforming himself during one session into the adventurous Stephen Hopkins (1581-1644 ) and another session the virtuous Elder William Brewster (c. 1567 - 1644). Pickering and his guests will explore competing and changing attitudes to theater in the Jacobean England that the Pilgrims left behind, and they will perform readings from both plays. The final session will focus on theater-related tracts and books in the private libraries of Mayflower passengers.
Course preparation and performed readings will use the Updated Editions of Hamlet and The Tempest from the Folger Shakespeare Library.
Speaker Bio:
Richard is the Deputy Executive Director and Senior Historian at Plimoth Patuxet Museums. He has been with the Museum for more than 40 years and has served as a historical role player, research associate, Director of Education and Director of Special Projects. He studied English and American Studies in graduate programs at Bridgewater State University, the College of William and Mary, and the University of Connecticut. Richard oversees the Museum’s ongoing research as well as educational and theatrical programs. He has spoken at the United Nations and Smithsonian National Museum of American History and has appeared on NPR, PBS, History Channel, NECN, NBC News, ABC’s The Chew, and Martha Stewart Living Radio. He also worked on Ric Burns’ film The Pilgrims for American Experience.
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