First Folios Compared – For the first time, Shakespeare open for scrutiny like never before

We are delighted to share the news of this online resource from off the press from the publisher Adam Matthew Digital.

First Folios Compared is an Open Access website created and hosted by AM. The site brings together digitised copies of Shakespeare’s First Folio, sourced from a wide range of institutions around the world, who kindly agreed to contribute their digital version to this project.

“As well as providing the digital images, each institution kindly shared any existing metadata connected to the document, which we have amalgamated to maximise the efficacy of the search and filtering functions in the site.”-About the project

First Folios Compared was built in 2023 in order to celebrate the 400^th anniversary of the famous book’s publication and to create a unique research opportunity for all – the chance to compare over 50 First Folios together in the same place for the first time in history.

Professor Emma Smith, Hertford College, Oxford writes: “Although (or perhaps because) Shakespeare’s First Folio is probably the world’s most famous – and studied – secular book, there is still a real opportunity to make discoveries about individual copies. Take the Craven copy, for example: only recently identified as a First, rather than a later, Folio, it has hardly been studied at all. More people have looked in awe at these copies as high-value objects kept for senior researchers or behind glass for museum-style viewing, than have actually turned each page looking for details. First Folios Compared allows you to do this, at scale, for the first time.  “

Mirron Wills as Henry IV https://uh.edu/news-events/stories/2015/June/HenryIV_MirronWillis.jpg

You may also be interested in King’s College Cambridge’s First Folio online on Cambridge University Digital Library

Check out as well the Shakespeare resources available to you thanks to Cambridge University Libraries, including critical editions and videos of current theatre productions.

New home for BBC Shakespeare Archive

The BBC Shakespeare Archive Resource has been moved from http://shakespeare.ch.bbc.co.uk/ to a new permanent home with the Educational Recordings Agency, ERA.

https://era.org.uk/shakespeare-archive/

Hundreds of new programmes and performances have been added, bringing the site up to date, and making the resource better than ever.  New programming will be added on a regular basis. The collection of stills images are not available on the ERA site.

You will need to re-register on the ERA site to gain access. https://era.org.uk/registration/

For more information about access, contact shakespeare@era.org.uk

About ERA

ERA supports the education sector by making it easy for schools, colleges and universities to harness the power of audio-visual broadcast material for non-commercial educational purposes through provision of their licence. The ERA Licence enables educational establishments to legally make recordings or copies of TV and radio programmes for educational use. 

In addition to the BBC Shakespeare Archive, ERA have produced a collection of classroom-ready resources for licensees to use, including 5000+ curated clips linked to key curriculum areas, themed playlists, subject collections and more.  

https://era.org.uk/tv-radio-resources/

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Measure_for_Measure_one.jpg

עברית: ההצגה “מידה כנגד מידה”, תיאטרון החאן, בבימויו של גדי רול, תיאטרון החאן, ירושלים, תפאורה: רוני תורן, מעצבת תלבושות: עינת ניר קוש, תאורה: פליס רוס, מוזיקה: אלדד לידור ;1998English: The play “Measure for Measure”, directed by Gadi Roll, Scenery: Roni Toren, Lighting: Felice Ross, Music: Eldad Entertainment; at the Khan Theatre, Jerusalem, in 1998.

A round up of new eresrouces made available between 3rd to 17th April

As new eresources are made available due to COVID-19 they are being added to the Databases A-Z and promoted by the ejournals and ebooks teams on WordPress blogs (ejournals@cambridge and ebooks@cambridge) and Twitter (@ejournalscamb and @ebookscamb). When records are available in Alma for the new databases and collections they will be activated and be loaded into iDiscover.

The new databases and collections made available and promoted between 3^rd and 17^th April are listed below. Details about trial end dates are included in the blog posts that are linked to each title.

Inter-disciplinary

Artfilms, Bloomsbury ebooks, Textbooks on Cambridge Core, ProQuest Databases (including ProQuest Dissertation and Thesis Databases and ProQuest Video Online), Archive Direct, Project Muse, VitalSource Helps, JSTOR ebooks, SpringerLink textbooks, Brepols Online, Perlego

Arts & Humanities

Architects Journal and Architectural Review (new subscriptions from recommendations), Babelscores, Classic Spring Oscar Wilde Collection (Drama Online), Maxine Peake as Hamlet (Drama Online), Medici.TV, Littman e-library of Jewish Civilisation, Theology and Religion Online , RIPM North American and Music Periodicals, RIPM Jazz Periodicals, Bloomsbury Fashion Central, Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament

Humanities and Social Sciences

Bristol University Press and Policy Press journals (Business, Economics, Education, Law, International Relations, SPS), Oxford Handbooks – Criminology and Criminal Justice, Encyclopedia of Early Modern History, South Asia Archive

Biological Sciences

Rockefeller University Press journals (Medicine, Life science, Physiology), Thieme Connect Medical Journals , British Small Animal Veterinary Association, SIAM Epidemiology collection, Lancet Respiratory Medicine

Physical Sciences

Oxford Handbooks – Physical Sciences, Lyell Collection (Geological Society Publications), Thieme Connect Chemistry Journals, GeoScience World ebooks collection

Technology

Oxford Handbooks – Business and Management, Harvard Business Publishing Collection on EBSCOhost

For details on sending suggestions regarding new acquisition of ebooks, ejournals or eresources (databases) please see the instructions on the recommendations page.

If a subscribed version of an article is not readily available you may find the ‘Search and Discovery Tools’ pages useful. The browser plug-ins section includes details for Lean Library (which gives access to subscribed articles by reloading publisher platform URLs via Raven as well as searching for an OA copy if a subscribed version is not available) and Open Access browser plug-ins.

We hope you find this digest of recently added ersources useful.

Drama Online – Maxine Peake as Hamlet : access until 31st May 2020

Watch Maxine Peake as Hamlet in the Royal Exchange Theatre’s production on Drama Online.

Please send any feedback regarding ongoing access to this performance using the online form.

Shakespeare’s most iconic work, HAMLET explodes with big ideas and is the ultimate story of loyalty, love, betrayal, murder and madness. Hamlet’s father is dead and Denmark has crowned Hamlet’s uncle the new king. Consumed by grief, Hamlet struggles to exact revenge, with devastating consequences.

From its sell-out run at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre comes the film version of their unique and critically acclaimed production, with BAFTA-nominee Maxine Peake in the title role. This ground breaking stage production, directed by Sarah Frankcom, was the Royal Exchange Theatre’s fastest-selling show in a decade.

 

World Theatre Day – Live Theatre Collections

We have access to a number of collections of live theatre performances that you can enjoy in your own home.

Digital Theatre Plus captures the moments before the curtain rises and after the curtain falls, providing valuable insight into the play making process. We share the hidden drama of the weeks, days, and hours before ‘lights up’ on stage. By revealing the world of the rehearsal room, dressing room, backstage and beyond, our documentaries and interviews introduce theatre as a vibrant, exciting art form through a familiar and accessible medium.

Drawing on 10 years of NT Live broadcasts, alongside high-quality archive recordings never previously seen outside of the NT’s Archive, the National Theatre Collection now contains 24 films.

• Comedies: She Stoops to Conquer, One Man, Two Guvnors, and London Assurance
• 20th century classics: Yerma, The Cherry Orchard, The Deep Blue Sea and Les Blancs
• Shakespeare plays: Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Coriolanus, Twelfth Night, The Winter’s Tale and Romeo and Juliet
• Literary adaptations: Frankenstein, Jane Eyre, Treasure Island and Peter Pan
• Greek classics: Antigone and Medea
• World historical drama: Dara

The Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy on Screen

JULIUS CAESAR * HENRY IV * THE TEMPEST

Harriet Walter leads an all female cast in these three productions set in a women’s prison.

Shakespeare’s Globe on Screen 1 (2008-2015) and 2 (2016-2018)

This collection features 21 films recorded live on the Globe stage from leading actors including Mark Rylance, Stephen Fry, and Roger Allam’s Olivier Award-winning role as Falstaff in Henry IV.  Founded by the pioneering American actor and director Sam Wanamaker, Shakespeare’s Globe is dedicated to the exploration of Shakespeare’s work and the theatre for which he wrote.

Shakespeare’s Globe on Screen 2 (2016-2018) includes 9 landmark productions from the theatre’s most recent seasons, including two productions from Emma Rice’s tenure as Artistic Director and the first production from the indoor Jacobean theatre, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

The RSC Live Collection.

The Royal Shakespeare Company creates theatre at its best, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world. The RSC produces an inspirational artistic programme each year, setting Shakespeare in context, alongside the work of his contemporaries and today’s writers.

New e-resource : Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy on Screen

Through the support of anonymous donors the University of Cambridge now has full access on and off campus to the Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy on Screen.

The Donmar Shakespeare Trilogy began in 2012 with an all-female production of Julius Caesar led by Dame Harriet Walter. Set in a women’s prison, the production asked the question, ‘Who owns Shakespeare?’ Two further productions followed: Henry IV in 2014 and The Tempest in 2016, all featuring a diverse company of women. The Trilogy enthralled theatre audiences in London and New York and was shared with women and girls in prisons and schools across the UK. The film versions were shot live in a specially built temporary theatre in King’s Cross in 2016.

Julius Caesar

Power, betrayal, justice. Phyllida Lloyd directs a cast including Harriet Walter in Shakespeare’s great political drama, part of the Donmar Warehouse’s all-female Shakespeare Trilogy.

Set in the present-day in the world of a women’s prison, Julius Caesar could not be more timely as it depicts the catastrophic consequences of a political leader’s extension of his powers beyond the remit of the constitution. As Brutus (Harriet Walter) wrestles with his moral conscience over the assassination of Julius Caesar (Jackie Clune), Mark Antony (Jade Anouka) manipulates the crowd through his subtle and incendiary rhetoric to frenzied mob violence. There follows the descent of the country into factions and the outbreak of civil war.

Henry IV      

What makes a king? What makes a father? Shakespeare’s monumental history play travels to the heart of family, duty and country.

This innovative film, recorded before a live audience, documents the Donmar Warehouse’s all-female stage production, adapted from William Shakespeare’s two plays about King Henry IV, Prince Hal and Falstaff.

The bold, contemporary production is presented as if played by inmates of a women’s prison and was described by critics as ‘unforgettable’. The director for both stage and screen is Phyllida Lloyd, and Dame Harriet Walter is Henry IV.

The Tempest

The final instalment in the Donmar Warehouse’s all-female Shakespeare Trilogy sees Harriet Walter take on the role of Prospero in this evocation of the eternal struggle for freedom, morality and justice.

Directed for both stage and screen by Phyllida Lloyd. Set on an isle ‘full of noises’, this magical production features a glowing score by Joan Armatrading. Critics celebrated the original staging as ‘A glorious reminder that genuine diversity offers astonishing creative benefits’.

 

Text taken from the Bloomsbury Drama Online platform.

 

New e-resource : Shakespeare’s Globe on Screen 2 (2016-2018)

Through the support of anonymous donors the University of Cambridge now has full access on and off campus (via Raven) to Shakespeare’s Globe on Screen 2 (2016-2018).

Shakespeare’s Globe on Screen 2 (2016-2018) includes landmark productions from the theatre’s 2016, 2017 and 2018 seasons, including the first production from the indoor Jacobean theatre, the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.

This new collection of nine productions has been added to the productions already available to view on Drama Online from the Shakespeare’s Globe on Screen 1 (2008-2015) collection.

 

 

 

Productions available include Measure for Measure:

 

“Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lose the good we oft might win

By fearing to attempt”

 

Lucio (Act 1, Scene 5)

 

 

 

 

 

Text image credit: ” Mr. VVilliam Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies; Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories, & tragedies” Classmark SSS.10.6 held at Cambridge University Library. Available from the Cambridge Digital Library

New e-resource: Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Live Collection

The University of Cambridge now has full access to the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) Live Collection on the Bloomsbury Drama Online platform via this link.

In 2013 the company began live screenings of its Shakespeare productions, captured in The RSC Live Collection. In 2016-17 the company collaborated with Intel and The Imaginarium Studios to stage The Tempest, bringing performance capture to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for the very first time.

The collection of video films of the most recent RSC productions will support the study of Shakespeare in performance and of drama in general, as well as in the growing area of study in digital performance per se.

Detail of Johann Heinrich Ramberg painting of the Tempest – Stephano, Trinculo and Caliban

The Royal Shakespeare Company creates theatre at its best, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world. The RSC produces an inspirational artistic programme each year, setting Shakespeare in context, alongside the work of his contemporaries and today’s writers

Royal Shakespeare Company Live Collection on Drama Online: Trial access

Trial access is now available to the Royal Shakespeare Company Live Collection on Drama Online.

Access the trial on campus here or off campus here

The trial is active now and runs until 31 May 2018.  Please send your feedback to: efllib@hermes.cam.ac.uk.

The Royal Shakespeare Company creates theatre at its best, made in Stratford-upon-Avon and shared around the world. The RSC produces an inspirational artistic programme each year, setting Shakespeare in context, alongside the work of his contemporaries and today’s writers.

In 2013 the company began live screenings of its Shakespeare productions, captured in The RSC Live Collection. In 2016-17 the company collaborated with Intel and The Imaginarium Studios to stage The Tempest, bringing performance capture to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for the very first time.

The Hollow Crown

The University of Cambridge now has access to The Hollow Crown, filmed adaptations of Shakespeare’s history plays produced by Rupert Ryle-Hodges , on the Drama Online platform.

The first series of The Hollow Crown brings together Richard II, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, and Henry V. Starring Ben Whishaw, Jeremy Irons and Tom Hiddleston, this continuous story of monarchy follows events during sixteen years of dynastic and political power play.

In Series 2, Henry VI in two parts and Richard III, tell the story of ‘The Wars of the Roses’, an exceptionally turbulent period in British history. Starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugh Bonneville, Judi Dench, Michael Gambon, Sally Hawkins, Sophie Okonedo and Tom Sturridge, these exhilarating and emotionally charged films feature some of Shakespeare’s most eloquent and powerful language.

The series was executive produced by Sam Mendes and Pippa Harris under Neal Street Productions in association with NBC Universal.

The Hollow Crown: The Wars Of The Roses – Gloucester (HUGH BONNEVILLE), Margaret (SOPHIE OKONEDO), Richard III (BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH), Cecily (JUDI DENCH), Henry VI (TOM STURRIDGE) © BBC/Carnival Film & Television Ltd/Robert Viglasky