The Georgia Shakespeare Festival at Oglethorpe University closed in 2014 and left a gaping hole in the state’s open-air festival theatre scene. No one stepped forward to fill the gap until Dr. Brent Griffin and his Resurgens Theatre Company brought the Bard back to the great outdoors at Mary Alice Park in Forsyth County last September.
Now, Dr. Griffin explains why the works of Shakespeare and his contemporaries should be staged this way in a special guest lecture, An Afternoon with the Bard, at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 11 at the Cumming Library, 585 Dahlonega Street.
Admission to the event is free and open to the public.
Before launching Resurgens Theatre Company and managing performances at the newly formed North Georgia Shakespeare Festival, Dr. Griffin served on the research staff at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.
He is also the former director of the English Literature Program at Florida State University’s London Study Centre. He has performed in Shakespeare companies throughout the region and holds a Ph.D. in Renaissance drama and performance studies.
During An Afternoon with the Bard, Dr. Griffin will discuss the early modern production modes and performance practices employed by the North Georgia Shakespeare Festival, especially those that amplify and enhance the poetic qualities intrinsic to Renaissance verse drama, and explain why Shakespeare and his fellow players did what they did and why we should still be doing it their way.
