2016 marks the celebration of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death or, rather, the beginning of his afterlife. Not only in his native England but also in many other countries, this occasion is duly celebrated, for Shakespeare has been an unlimited source of ideas for theater artists, literary scholars and classroom teachers round the globe. For the past 27 years, our Department of English Literature in the School of English has been offering an upper-level course exclusively on Shakespeare and has also included the study of the bard in its second-year core course, Survey of English Literature and Culture. Every year research on topics related to Shakespeare and/or the English Renaissance is carried out by students at all levels, so the bard is alive and well here at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki!
We are a group of students, who inspired by our love for poetry and the words of the English bard himself, decided to participate in a theatrical activity that celebrates Shakespeare’s memory and cultural legacy to the world. The activity is organized by our Shakespeare teacher and scholar, Dr Tina Krontiris, but we all contribute ideas and props towards its successful completion.
Our uniqueness lies as much in our love for Shakespeare as in our mobility, for we are an ITINERANT group of players. We perform not in a specific location, but throughout the campus of Aristotle University extempore, like the Mechanicals in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. And we don’t do one play, as is customary, but a mixed bag or potpourri of scenes from a variety of Shakespeare’s plays. Our purpose is to be sharp and effective, so our performances are short, lasting only about half hour. This allows us to perform even during a lunch break!
We are in this group for fun, but we also want to reach as many people as possible, to inspire them with our love for Elizabethan poetry and to share our joy in celebrating Shakespeare’s symbolic re-birth. We would like to offer the students, teachers, and staff of the University a pleasurable break from their work-routine, an opportunity to lift up their heads from the everyday mundane world and to see, even for an instance, a different world that is by no means ideal but it is “more lovely and more temperate.”
Follow us on a magic trip in the worlds of Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, King Henry and many others!
You can find more about the performances here after 1 May 2016!