Researchers' Tales

American Playwrights and European Politics - Jami Rogers
Wednesday 18 May 2011, 7-8pm - Book Online
A lecture focusing on the National's productions of Arthur Miller's Broken Glass and Lillian Hellman's Watch on the Rhine. Jami Rogers, a doctoral student at the Shakespeare Institute, discusses how major world events have stimulated a response in a line of American dramatists and how the National has adopted and interpreted these works.

"What ho! For Shakespeare when we get back to Blighty!": The 1916 'Shakespeare Hut' for the troops.- Dr. Ailsa Grant Ferguson
Wednesday 25 May 2011, 7-8pm - Book Online
The outbreak of the Great War halted all progress toward the development of a National Theatre and in August 1914 the National Theatre Committee suspended operations. It was not until 1916 that they thought of the vacant site they owned and the possibility of turning it to patriotic account by lending it to the YMCA for the erection of a Shakespeare Hut for the entertainment and social service of the troops. Dr. Grant Ferguson is the Research Associate for the King's College London project 'Monumental Shakespeare', undertaking comparative research into modes of Shakespearean memorialisation in London and in Sydney at the time of the Shakespeare Tercentenary in 1916.
 

Soyinka's Bacchae at the National - Adam Lecznar
Wednesday 1 June 2011, 6-7pm (Please note the amended start time) - Book Online
A lecture on the 1971 National Theatre production of Euripides' The Bacchae adapted by Wole Soyinka and directed by Roland Joffe.  Adam Lecznar, a doctoral student in Classics at University College London, discusses Wole Soyinka's The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite (1973) and explores how Soyinka's drama develops and questions Euripides' original ancient Greek tragedy. Lecznar explores the influence of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche on this first production of Soyinka's play, the National's commissioning of Soyinka, and charts the interplay between African and European sources. 
 

An Irish Peer Gynt - Dr. Esther Armstrong
Wednesday 8 June 2011, 7-8pm - Book Online
A lecture on the NT production of Frank McGuinness' version of Ibsen's Peer Gynt in 2000, directed by Conall Morrison. Dr Armstrong will discuss the artistic intentions behind the development of this production. Its production and reception were controversial and the UK critics clearly had problems with the perceived Irish presence in this play, particularly since the idea of ‘British' identity was culturally under question during this period.
 

NT Live, from research to broadcast - David Sabel
Wednesday 15 June 2011, 7-8pm - Book Online
David Sabel, Head of Digital Media and Producer of NT Live at the National discusses the MBA research which led to his NT producing role. As part of his MBA Sabel undertook a research placement at the National to develop a feasibility study for the broadcast of National Theatre productions to cinemas, the study revealed a longer history of such work than is widely known. Sabel discusses past theatre broadcasts projects and the development and future of NT Live.
 

Ancient Chorus and Modern Ensembles - Lucy Jackson
Wednesday 22 June 2011, 7-8pm - Book Online
Lucy Jackson, a doctoral student in Classics at Oxford University, explores contemporary approaches to the ‘problem' of the chorus as seen in productions by Katie Mitchell at the National Theatre from 1999 to 2006. Jackson questions how twenty-first century treatments of the chorus compare with ancient choruses, and indeed how those treatments compare with what a twenty- first century audience expects of a chorus today.

All lectures at 7pm
National Theatre Studio, 83-101, The Cut, SE1 8LL
Book online or call 020 7452 3000. Limited availability