Postgraduate 'Sandpit Symposium'

As part of the exciting collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and the University of Birmingham, the RSC is offering academics and postgraduate students the opportunity to participate in a prestigious and cutting-edge research project.

As part of the exciting collaboration between the Royal Shakespeare Company and the University of Birmingham, the RSC is offering academics and postgraduate students the opportunity to participate in a prestigious and cutting edge research project.

RSC artists Gemma Brockis and Wendy Hubbard are currently developing an immersive piece of theatre, titled Interregnum, for The Other Place and, as part of the Research & Development for the project, the RSC is hosting a two-day symposium about the Interregnum.

The ‘Sandpit Symposium’ will allow University of Birmingham academics, postgraduate students and RSC artists to work alongside one another to explore the artistic and academic connections that can be made through joint inquiry. The ambition is for the event to enrich the R&D for Interregnum, as well as suggest surprising academic research connections.

The symposium will begin with 15 minute presentations from participants, which will feed into sandpit activities and discussions which will further investigate these topics in a creative and playful spirit. Topics might include:

Early Modern court performance

Inigo Jones: Perspective, trompe d'oeil theatre design, architecture, theatrical machinery, the history of special effects

Anti-theatricality and the closure of the theatres

Theatrical performance during the Civil War and Interregnum

Trial and Execution of Charles I - show-trials, regicide

Early Modern Visual Culture

Iconoclasm - ideas and practices, state iconoclasm

Radical and sectarian politics, literature and practices

Print Culture in the Civil War and Interregnum

Military History of the Civil War and Interregnum

Parliamentary History of the Civil War and Interregnum

New Model Army and the Levellers

Religion, Magic and Superstition - Prophecy and politics, Witchtrials, Anti-Catholicism.

For further information or to express interest in attending the symposium, please contact Sally Delbeke, The Other Place Programme Manager, s.delbeke@bham.ac.uk. Expressions of interest must include a 250-word abstract detailing the topic of your presentation. Spaces are limited and the deadline for submissions is 30^th January 2017. 

For more examples of student workshops within the university's collaboration with The Royal Shakespeare Company, see our engagement page. More detailed information, as well as student perspectives, can be found on the News section of the site.