Shakespeare and Digital Performance in Practice

by Erin Sullivan

Shakespeare and Digital Performance in Practice explores the impact of digital technologies on the theatrical performance of Shakespeare in the twenty-first century, both in terms of widening cultural access and developing new forms of artistry. Through close analysis of dozens of productions, both high-profile and lesser known, it examines the rise of live broadcasting and recording in the theatre, the growing use of live video feeds and dynamic projections on the mainstream stage, and experiments in born-digital theatre-making, including social media, virtual reality, and video-conferencing adaptations. In doing so, it argues that technologically adventurous performances of Shakespeare allow performers and audiences to test what they believe theatre to be, as well as to reflect on what it means to be present—with a work of art, with others, with oneself—in an increasingly online world.

362 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 18, 2022

About the author

Erin Sullivan is a Senior Lecturer at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, where she works on the experience of emotion in and through Shakespeare's plays. She is the author of Beyond Melancholy: Sadness and Selfhood in Renaissance England (2016), and the co-editor of The Renaissance of Emotion: Understanding Affect in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries (2015) and Shakespeare on the Global Stage: Performance and Festivity in the Olympic Year (2015). She is currently working on a book about digital technology and Shakespearean performance.