Why Shakespeare Now?

The School of Humanities invites the University community and the general public to Why Shakespeare Now? A Conversation with Bi-qi Beatrice Lei & Ben Crystal moderated by Judy Celine Ick.

April 17, 2024
5:00–6:30 PM Manila Time
Leong Hall Auditorium, Ateneo de Manila University
(with the option to attend virtually over Zoom)

In this hybrid event, Bi-qi Beatrice Lei (attending in person) and Ben Crystal (participating from the United Kingdom over Zoom) explore the ways by which the works of William Shakespeare signify. How did Shakespeare use his sources, especially historical, to create plays that spoke to his time? How have we put Shakespeare in different theatrical contexts? How do we invite Shakespeare to resonate with or against the society and cultures we find ourselves in today? What might Shakespeare productions in Asian contexts look like?

The conversation with Lei and Crystal will be moderated by Judy Celine Ick.

To register for this event, scan the QR code in the image above or visit this link: https://sites.google.com/ateneo.edu/whyshakespearenow/home

Bi-qi Beatrice Lei is a leading figure in global Shakespeare scholarship. She is the chair of the Asian Shakespeare Association, Assistant Director of the Shakespeare Association of America, and a Trustee of the International Shakespeare Association. A research fellow at the Research Center for Digital Humanities of National Taiwan University and the director of the Taiwan Shakespeare Database, she is also the Series Editor for Global Shakespeare Inverted for Arden Bloomsbury Publishing. She is the author of several articles on Shakespeare, especially Shakespeare productions in Asia. Her latest book, as co-editor with Judy Celine Ick and Poonam Trivedi, is Shakespeare's Asian Journeys: Critical Encounters, Cultural Geographies, and the Politics of Travel. 

Ben Crystal is an actor and author. In 2011, he played Hamlet in the first original pronunciation production of the play in 400 years. His book Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard was shortlisted for the 2010 Educational Writer of the Year Award. With David Crystal, he co-authored Shakespeare's Words and Everyday Shakespeare. He founded ShakespeareEnsemble.com, which, in making full-scale productions of Shakespeare in three days or fewer, explores “a fusion of Elizabethan rehearsal methods and modern physical theatre techniques.”

Judy Celine Ick is the chair of the Department of English and Comparative Literature at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She is the author of Unsex Me Here: Female Power and Shakespearean Tragedy and co-editor (with Beatrice Lei and Poonam Trivedi) of Shakespeare's Asian Journeys: Critical Encounters, Cultural Geographies, and the Politics of Travel. As an actor and dramaturg, she has worked with several academic and professional theater companies in the Philippines. She is the Vice-Chairperson of the Asian Shakespeare Association.

The Kwan Laurel Endowment Fund for the Humanities, established by Rodney and Robert Kwan Laurel to honor their parents, supports lectures, workshops, and similar international engagements of the School of Humanities, Ateneo de Manila University. The inaugural lecture was delivered by David Crystal, on "What's New in Shakespeare Language Studies," in 2022.

Photo in poster by Jessica Pamp on Unsplash