Shakespeare’s Globe and the USA Shakespeare’s Globe is one of the most popular visitor destinations in the UK, at the heart of the regeneration of London’s Bankside. Together the Globe Theatre, Globe Education, Globe Exhibition and Tour offer a unique setting to explore Shakespeare in performance. The Globe has always been an international story, having been built by an American, and welcoming international audiences into its oak embrace throughout its life. It has also sought to take the Globe’s work back out into the world through international touring and education programmes. The following points detail the Globe’s close relationship with the USA and the relevant opportunities for media features. To discuss further, please contact Louise Gilbert, Press & PR Officer 2012, Louise.g@shakespearesglobe.com, +44 (0)207 902 1476. The project to rebuild Shakespeare’s Globe was initiated by the American actor, director and producer Sam Wanamaker after his first visit to London in 1949. When the young American from Chicago came to London he set out to visit the site of Shakespeare’s Globe and was amazed to find the only testimony to its existence was a blackened bronze plaque on the wall of a brewery. Sam conceived of a more appropriate memorial to the greatest playwright in western civilization: a replica of the Globe itself. His enthusiasm, tenacity and energy inspired a world-wide effort to rebuild it as faithfully as scholarship and craftsmanship could achieve, only a few hundred yards from where Shakespeare’s original stood. The Globe opened in 1997, just four years after Sam passed away. In 1987, before the Globe opened, His Royal Highness Prince Philip drove in the first oak foundation post from Windsor Great Park, which was followed by posts donated by 25 international countries, including one from the USA. Shakespeare’s Globe productions have been enjoyed by audiences in America since the Globe opened in 1997. They following productions have toured the USA: 1997 2002 2003 2005 2009 2010 2011
The Two Gentlemen of Verona Cymbeline Twelfth Night Measure for Measure Love’s Labour’s Lost The Merry Wives of Windsor The Comedy of Errors
New York New York Los Angeles, Pittsburgh and Ann Arbor US Cities US Cities Santa Monica and New York Los Angeles and California
In 2011, avid theatre lover Sara Miller McCune, founder and executive Chairman of SAGE publications, the international academic and professional publishing company in California, donated £1million to launch the Globe’s campaign to build an Indoor Jacobean Theatre onsite at the Globe. Dr Farah Karim-Cooper, the Globe’s Head of Research & Courses was raised in Texas. Her first role at the Globe was as make-up consultant for Original Practice productions. Farah oversees all research activity and chairs the Globe Architecture Research Group, who are currently working on the development of a 320 seat Indoor Jacobean Theatre onsite. The theatre will represent a rare opportunity to experience the kind of theatre that Shakespeare would have worked in, as theatre practices evolved from the outdoor playhouses. It will create a new and completely unique theatre space for London, adding to the already vibrant cultural scene in the capital. The Indoor Theatre will enable the Globe to expand the repertoire of work it presents, and to stage full-scale performances of Jacobean drama in their intended atmosphere. It will also allow the Globe to produce productions all year round, and Globe Education will use the space in the summer months. Globe Education’s excellent in-house academic department, lead by Farah, is leading the research work. The theatre is set to open in 2013.
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