RSC Collaboration People

Tom is the University of Birmingham's academic lead for the collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company. His teaching and research interests move across the early modern and into the Romantic periods, with a particular focus on the way in which later writers respond to, adapt and receive earlier writers. His current projects include research on Charles Lamb's reading of early modern drama for a new OUP edition of his Complete Works, responses to Ben Jonson in the Restoration and Romantic periods, and on early modern manuscript poetry.

• Tom Lockwood staff profile

Jacqui leads the RSC’s work with children, young people, teachers, adult learners and partner theatres across the UK and around the world. As a cultural learning specialist, Jacqui is passionate about providing equitable access to high quality creative arts opportunities, progression pathways to diversify the arts sector, and empowering young people to use Shakespeare, arts and creativity to affect social change. Jacqui has an interest in research, particularly finding accessible ways to share and disseminate it to inform real world decision-making. Jacqui is Chair of the Cultural Learning Alliance and a primary school governor. She was also appointed as a Commissioner for the Durham Commission in Creativity in Education.

Daniel became Co-Artistic Director of the RSC with Tamara Harvey in June 2023. 

His work as an actor has spanned Shakespeare, Sondheim and Sarah Kane, at the RSC, National Theatre, Royal Court, Donmar Warehouse, Menier, Sheffield and on Broadway. He’s the recipient of two Olivier Awards for his Sondheim performances.

In 2009, Daniel was appointed Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres and in 2016 he was appointed Artistic Director of Chichester Festival Theatre.

Tamara became Co-Artistic Director of the RSC with Daniel Evans in June 2023. She was previously the Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd.

Tamara was a directing intern at the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey and her first professional job in theatre was as assistant director at Shakespeare’s Globe under Mark Rylance.

Her work as a freelance director has included Shakespeare, classic revivals, new writing and musical theatre, at theatres in the West End, around the UK and in the USA.

In 2015, she was appointed Artistic Director of Theatr Clwyd. Her award-winning shows for Theatr Clwyd include Home, I’m Darling by Laura Wade (nominated for five Olivier Awards, winning Best New Comedy), Peter Gill’s version of Uncle Vanya, digital adaptations of The Picture of Dorian Gray and What A Carve Up! and Isla, which she then directed for the BBC.

Dr David Evans-Powell is the Partnerships Manager within the College of Arts and Law, managing relationships with critical partners across the cultural, creative and other sectors that further strategic teaching, research and civic ambitions.

David has over 20 years’ experience working in the cultural and higher education sectors in development, stewardship, relationship and stakeholder management. He is a proud University of Birmingham alumnus, holding a BA History with Ancient History and Archaeology and a PhD Film Studies, and has previously published articles and chapters on British screen horror

David is a supporter of the Campaign for the Arts and has lifelong passions for theatre, film, television, museums and heritage.

Michael is the Director of the University of Birmingham's Shakespeare Institute. He writes "My career as a teacher of and writer about Shakespeare’s plays and poems has been devoted not just to examining these extraordinary writings in their sixteenth- and seventeenth-century contexts, but to exploring how they have stimulated and enabled the creativity of other people, individually and collectively, across time – whether actors (both professional and amateur), scholars, directors, philosophers, composers, critics, sculptors, poets, or novelists. As a result I enjoy working as a consultant to theatre directors and actors as well as publishing scholarly essays and books, and although the central focus of my work has been on the interpretation of Shakespeare in the theatre down the centuries since his death, and on the history of our continuing love affair with Elizabeth and the Elizabethans more generally, I take an enthusiastic and informed interest in most things done in Shakespeare’s name in different media around the world."

Ewan is Chair, Professor and Fellow of the Shakespeare Institute.  Erica Whyman said his latest book, Shakespeare for Freedom: Why the Plays Matter, "should inspire scholars and theatre-makers alike to treat him once again as a liberating spirit, an existential provocateur and a playwright for our times."Ewan is co-convenor, with Abigail Rokison-Woodall, of the pioneering MA in Shakespeare and Creativity.  His collaborative civic liturgy for St George's Day was performed in major cathedrals across the country.  The novel he co-wrote with Simon Palfrey, Macbeth, Macbeth, was described by Slavoj Žižek as "a miracle, an instant classic."  Fernie is currently working, with Katharine Craik, on a new play for the RSC based on Shakespeare's Pericles, and on the Birmingham-based Shakespearean, activist and heterodox preacher he considers a lost prophet of incomplete modernity, George Dawson (1821-76).

Abigail began her career as a professional actor, training at LAMDA. She completed her PhD at Trinity Hall, Cambridge University in 2006 after which she became a lecturer in Drama and English in the Education Faculty in Cambridge. In January 2013 she became Lecturer in Shakespeare and Theatre at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham.  Abigail has written a number of journal articles and chapters on Shakespeare and other drama. Her first monograph, Shakespearean Verse Speaking, was published in 2010 by Cambridge University Press, and won the inaugural Shakespeare’s Globe first book award. She has published two more books - Shakespeare for Young People: Productions, Versions and Adaptations (Bloomsbury Arden, 2013) and Shakespeare in the Theatre: Nicholas Hytner (Bloomsbury Arden, 2017).  She is the co-general editor with Michael Dobson and Simon Russell Beale of a new series of Arden Performance Editions of Shakespeare’s plays for which she has edited A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Hamlet.  She is also writing a book for Bloomsbury Arden about the RSC’s The Other Place.