Theme by nostrich.
Presentation by: Dr. Michael Olsson - November 12, 2009
Dr. Olsson’s research focuses on how theatre professionals view Shakespeare. According to Olsson the prevailing academic view of Shakespeare is individualistic. Shakespeare is often viewed as the author and director of the plays. He is viewed as a genius who left everything anyone need know to put on his plays.
Olsson found the reality from actors and other professionals to be much more collaborative and creative. Actors especially tended to frame their experience in reference to each other. Certain character portrayals were compared across their own experiences as well as well known performances of that character. Actors viewed their own portrayals in terms of the wider theatre context, thinking of their particular roles in comparison to great portrayals by famous actors.
Coming from a Multimedia/Humanities computing background I found it very interesting that Olsson reported many academics thinking of Shakespeare’s works only in terms of the author and as solitary works. My HuCo brain sees everything as potentially collaborative and discussion oriented since so much of the discipline works that way. Watching The Script is a good example of how Humanities Computing looks at the texts. The text is a gateway to an interpretation and many people can be involved in it
It was interesting for me to hear Dr. Olsson talk about a different way of studying Shakespeare that I would have thought would be a natural approach. Sometimes I don’t understand other disciplines.
