DR KEVIN A. QUARMBY

EDUCATION

2001-2008 PhD English: King's College, University of London.

Awarded Full AHRC Funding

Supervisor: Prof. Gordon McMullan. Secondary Supervisor: Prof. Ann Thompson.

Examined by: Prof. Tom Healy (Birkbeck, UoL) and Prof. Neil Taylor (Roehampton).

Title: ‘The Disguised Ruler in the Early Modern Repertory'

2000-2001 MA Shakespearean Studies (Merit): King's College, University of London, in collaboration with Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, London. Courses studied include: Literary Theory; Palaeography; Cultural and Textual Practice; Early Modern Stage Practice; Jacobean Drama.

‘Certificate in Computing for Humanities Research', King's College London, Centre for Computing in the Humanities

Awarded King's College London ‘Inglis Prize' .

Title: ‘Academic Analysis and Artistic Representation of the Lost Open-Air Playhouses of London'. A study of extant visual representations of London's early modern playhouses, with analysis of their material existence and the impact on our collective imagining of an ‘Elizabethan Globe' experience.

1995-2000 BA (Hons) Humanities with History (1st Class): The Open University.

Modular course with close historical and interdisciplinary investigation of the European Renaissance and Enlightenment, as well as the seventeenth-century political and social upheaval that accompanied the decline of the Stuart monarchical regime.

PUBLICATIONS

BOOK

The Disguised Ruler in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2012)

Abstract: In the early seventeenth century, the London stage often portrayed a ruler covertly spying on his subjects. Traditionally deemed ‘Jacobean disguised ruler plays', these works include Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, Marston's The Malcontent and The Fawn, Middleton's The Phoenix, and Sharpham's The Fleer. Commonly dated to the arrival of James I, these plays are typically viewed as synchronic commentaries on the Jacobean regime.

This work demonstrates that the disguised ruler motif actually evolved in the 1580s. It emerged from medieval folklore and balladry, Tudor Chronicle history and European tragicomedy. Familiar on the Elizabethan stage, these incognito rulers initially offered light-hearted, romantic entertainment, only to suffer a sinister transformation as England awaited its ageing queen's demise. The disguised royal had become a dangerously voyeuristic political entity by the time James assumed the throne.

Traditional critical perspectives also disregard contemporary theatrical competition. Market demands shaped the repertories. Rivalry among playing companies guaranteed the motif's ongoing vitality. The disguised ruler's presence in a play reassured audiences; it also facilitated a subversive exploration of contemporary social and political issues. Gradually, the disguised ruler's dramatic currency faded, but the figure remained vibrant as an object of parody until the playhouses closed in the 1640s.

ESSAYS AND BOOK SECTIONS

‘Lady Macbeth as First Lady: The Performance of Power on the Twenty-First Century Stage', book section for Macbeth: Arden Critical Currents, ed. Ann Thompson (London: Methuen Drama, A&C Black, forthcoming)

‘“All Great Neptune's Ocean”:  iShakespeare and Play in a Transatlantic Context', invited book section co-written with Sheila Cavanagh for Digital Shakespeare, ed. Christie Carson and Peter Kirwan (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming)

‘Narrative of Negativity: Whig Historiography and the Spectre of King James in Measure for Measure', Shakespeare Survey, 64 (2011): 300–316

‘Behind the Scenes: Penn & Teller, Taymor and the Tempest Divide', Shakespeare Bulletin, 29 (2011): 383–97

‘Julie Taymor's Tempests and Miranda's Transient Castles of Sand', Cahiers Élisabéthains (forthcoming 2012)

‘“As the cony that you see”: Rosalind's Risqué Rabbits in As You Like It', Shakespeare, 6:2 ( 2010): 153-64

The Shakespeare Encyclopedia: The Complete Guide to the Man and His Works, ed. A.D. Cousins (London: Apple Books, 2009), academic contributor providing chapters on As You Like It, pp. 120-25, Measure for Measure, pp. 144-9, King Lear, pp. 194-203 and Macbeth, pp. 204-13 .

‘A Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Study of Rehearsal and Performance Practice in the 1980 Royal Court Hamlet and the Old Vic Macbeth: An Actor's View', Shakespeare, 1:2 (2005): 174-87. Routledge selected the above article to be included in an online ‘Virtual Special Issues' Hamlet entry for 2010-2011.

REVIEWS

‘Review of The Faerie Queene, part of “The Faerie Queene Now Project”', The Spenser Review (forthcoming 2012)

‘ Shakespeare on Stage, by Julian Curry', Book Review, Cahiers Élisabéthains, 79 (2011): 113–5

‘John Fletcher's The Chances: ‘Read Not Dead' at Shakespeare's Globe', Play Review, Shakespeare, 7 (2011): 355–7

‘Arden Comes to Southwark: Review of As You Like It', Around the Globe, 43 (2009): 6-8

Play Reviews as part of the ‘Census of Renaissance Drama Productions' series in Research Opportunities in Medieval and Renaissance Drama:

‘John Marston's The Malcontent, ROMARD (forthcoming 2012)

‘Thomas Dekker and John Webster's Westward Ho!', ROMARD, 48 (2009): 82-6

‘Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine', ROMARD, 45 (2006): 143-5

‘Ben Jonson's Volpone', ROMARD, 45 (2006): 128-31

‘John Ford's ‘Tis Pity She's a Whore', ROMARD, 45 (2006): 117-9

‘Thomas Middleton's Women Beware Women', ROMARD, 44 (2005): 135-8

‘Thomas Middleton's The Revenger's Tragedy', ROMARD, 44 (2005): 132-4

‘Ben Jonson's Epicoene: or, the Silent Woman', ROMARD, 44 (2005): 122-5

Official contributor for The Routledge Annotated Bibliography of English Studies ( ABES: Renaissance and Early Modern English Literature). Annotations for:

Duncan Salkeld, ‘The Texts of Henry V ', Shakespeare, 3 (2007)

Stephen Cohen, ed., Shakespeare and Historical Formalism (Ashgate, 2007)

Michael Dobson, Performing Shakespeare's Tragedies Today: The Actor's Perspective (CUP, 2006)

Jennifer A. Low, ‘“Bodied Forth”: Spectator, Stage, and Actor in the Early Modern Theater', Comparative Drama, 39 (2005).

TEACHING EXPERIENCE (Undergraduate)

2011-present

Invited Lecturer, Homerton College (Cambridge): ‘From Restoration to the Long Eighteenth Century: Drama, Society and Gender in Wycherley and Sheridan'. Cambridge Undergraduate English Tripos, Homerton College, Cambridge.

London Faculty, Florida State University (London): ‘Introduction to Shakespeare' course for Florida State undergraduate London study programme, an intensive course that explores the generic diversity of Shakespearean drama and poetry.

London Faculty, Florida State University (London): ‘What is a Text', Capstone Course exploring the interrelation of concepts such as work, author, meaning, medium, code, form, text technology and material realization.

UK Faculty, British Studies Program, Emory University, Atlanta (Oxford): ‘British Theatre': Regent's Park College, Oxford. Summer British Studies course for Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. The course makes comparative study of early modern and contemporary drama, from textual, performance and staging perspectives.

2011

Associate Tutor, University of Sussex: 3rd Year ‘Early Modern Drama and Contemporary Theatre', in the School of English and Drama. Work-shopping and directing final year project, a staged performance of Ben Jonson's Masque of Queens.

2009-present

Globe Education Lecturer, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre London: ‘Shakespeare: Culture, Performance and Text', St Lawrence University undergraduate study-abroad course, focusing on As You Like It, Troilus and Cressida, Love's Labour's Lost, Comedy of Errors and Merry Wives. Also Globe Education Lecturer, offering introductory lectures to visiting UK and USA institutions.

Faculty, Foundation for International Education: Open Enrolment ‘Shakespeare and Elizabethan Literature' course for American undergraduates' London study programme, focusing on Macbeth, As You Like It, 1 and 2 Henry IV, Henry VIII and Measure for Measure.

Faculty, Foundation for International Education: ‘Contemporary British Theatre' and ‘World of Play' Capstone Course for Temple University, studying the development of British theatre since the Second World War to the present, with focus on creative writing techniques for reviewing both commercially and academically, and workshop components designed to enhance presentation skills.

2010-present

Accent London Faculty, University of California (London): ‘London Theatre', undergraduate study abroad course with textual, historical and practical approaches to drama. The practice-based element of this course offers students the opportunity to create a performance event (live or pre-recorded), which they then analyse critically.

2010

Invited Lecturer, Emory University (Oxford): ‘The Winter's Tale: From Page to Stage'. British Studies Programme, Regent's Park College, Oxford.

2009

Assistant Lecturer, University of Notre Dame (London): ‘Theatre Reviewing Technique' (module for ‘Shakespeare' course). Also ‘London Theatre Scene' and ‘Off, Off Shaftesbury', with close reading of Peter Brook's Empty Space and its relevance to contemporary performance.

Invited Lecturer, King's College London Summer School: Seminar on Jonson's The Alchemist in its London historical context.

2005-2008

Lecturer, Seminar Leader, King's College London: 1st Year undergraduate course, Literature of the English Renaissance, focusing on More's Utopia, Jonson's masques, Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, John Donne and metaphysical poetry, Mary Wroth, and Milton's Comus and Paradise Lost.

2003

Lecturer, Seminar Leader, King's College London: 1st Year undergraduate course, Text, Culture, History, studying works from Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur to Ballard's Concrete Island.

TEACHING EXPERIENCE (Postgraduate)

2008-09

Performance Workshop Leader, Trinity College of Music, London: Postgraduate MMus opera singers and Undergraduate BMus musicians, teaching audition and performance presentation skills.

Postgraduate Seminar Leader, King's College London: Department for Portuguese Studies, teaching history and application of the Italian and English sonnet forms (Petrarch to Shakespeare) for MA Portuguese Renaissance Studies module.

2005

Postgraduate Seminar Leader, King's College London: Jacobean Shakespeare module in the MA Shakespearean Studies, focusing on Shakespeare's Measure for Measure.

CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS

"'Come unbutton here': McKellen's King Lear as Dramatic Censorship of the Flesh," Keynote Speech, Drama and Censorship, 8th International Conference, Porto University Drama Research Center, Porto, Portugal, July 2012

iShakespeare: New Media in Research and Pedagogy, Co-presenter of workshop at the Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference, Boston, Massachusetts, April 2012.

‘Digital Pedagogy', Speaker at Special Session of the MLA (Modern Language Association) Annual Convention, Seattle, Washington, January 2012.

‘Getting Started in Digital Humanities with DHCommons', Invited Participant in specially convened workshop at MLA Annual Convention, Seattle, Washington, January 2012.

Invited Speaker, The City Pickwick Club, ‘Shakespearean Dickens and the Power of Drama', November 2011.

‘iPedagogy: Global Shakespeare and New Media', collaborative virtual presentation for the NINES (Networked Infrastructure for Nineteenth-century Electronic Scholarship) / NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) Summer Institute: Evaluating Digital Scholarship, University of Virginia, June 2011.

‘iPedagogy: Co-teaching Across the Ocean', series of presentations for audiences at Emory University, including Center for Faculty Development and Excellence, Emory's Center for Interactive Teaching, and others, May 2011-present.

‘Double Falsehood: Editing and the Performance Text', Shakespeare: Sources and Adaptation, Cambridge Shakespeare Conference, Cambridge University, September 2011.

‘Behind the Scenes: Penn & Teller, Taymor and the Tempest Divide', for Shakespeare's Shipwrecks: Theatres of Maritime Adventure (seminar directed by Dr Boika Sokolova), Deutsche Shakespeare-Gesellschaft Conference, Weimar, Germany, April–May 2011. (Two journal publications from this paper.)

‘Lady Macbeth as First Lady: The Performance of Power on the Twenty-First Century Stage', for ‘Macbeth': The State of Play (seminar directed by Professor Ann Thompson), Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference, Bellevue, Washington, April 2011. (A version of this paper will appear in a special Arden publication on contemporary responses to Macbeth, edited by Ann Thompson, due for publication 2013.)

Invited participant in Shakespeare Without Chairs: Open-Space Pedagogies (directed by Professor Carol Chillington Rutter and Jonathan Heron, The Capital Centre: Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning Seminar), focusing on performance and innovative pedagogy, Shakespeare Association of America Annual Conference, Chicago, April 2010.

Invited speaker, Emory British Studies Programme, Oxford July 2010: ‘Post-War British Theatre and the Royal Court Experience.”

Participant in staged presentations of Lingua, Mother Bombie, Alphonsus, Emperor of Germany, Albertus Wallenstein, Return from Parnassus, or The Scourge of Simony for the ‘Read Not Dead' series at Shakespeare's Globe, 2009-present.

‘The State of the Art', Reviewing Shakespearean Theatre: The State of the Art, The CAPITAL Centre, University of Warwick, the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and Nottingham Trent University, SBT, 5 September 2009.

Participant in staged presentation of Thomas Middleton's A Game At Chess for the Postgraduate ‘Middleton Symposium', Birkbeck College, University of London, February 2009.

‘“Ke ve la?”, Staged Encounter, Disguise and Historical Myth in Henry V ', Staged Encounters: History, Society, Identity, and Shakespeare (International Shakespeare Association Conference, The Centre of Advanced Study, Department of English, Jadavpur University, in association with the Shakespeare Association of America and The British Council), Kolkata, India, 18 December 2008. Seeking to open “new Shakespearean exchanges between West and East,” this conference considered the political implications of the study, staging and reception of Shakespeare.

‘Image, continuity, and the “Canker eaten rusty curre”: John Marston's The Malcontent and ‘Kinsayder's' disguised return', Text and Image in Early Modern Society, University of Sussex, 9 September 2008.

‘“To walke the publique streetes disguised”: Parody of the Tragicomic Disguised Ruler in Beaumont and Fletcher's Woman Hater', Tragicomedy: Renaissance to Restoration, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, 15 April 2005.

‘Politics and Repertory: James VI & I and the Disguised Ruler Plays', 1603: The Historical and Cultural Consequences of the Accession of James I, Hull University, 28 June 2003.

Public Lecture, 'Shakespeare and his Time', The Carlton Club, London, for the Kensington and Chelsea Women's Group, May 2003.

CURRENT AND FUTURE RESEARCH INTERESTS AND ACTIVITIES

Principal filmed interviewee for Shakespeare Now, a major 10-hour TV documentary project for PBS (sponsored by the NEH and the NEA), directed by Steve Rowland. Promoted as a “vast educational repository for educators, students and the public, with a major offering of on demand content,” Shakespeare Now is part of the Shakespeare Is project. Shakespeare Now invites selected academics and theatre practitioners to discuss Shakespeare in the twenty-first century. Specific involvement includes sections on ‘Shakespeare and New Media', ‘International Shakespeare', and ‘Shakespeare in Rehearsal and Performance'.

Awarded title, ‘Distinguished Visiting Scholar' at the Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning, Emory University Atlanta, October 2011. In recognition of personal commitment to, and involvement in, pushing the boundaries of international pedagogy through new media/digital technology.

Co-Director of the ‘World Shakespeare Project'. $20,000 3-year start-up grant awarded by the Halle Institute, with which an inaugural meeting was convened in Atlanta, Georgia, June 2011. This represents the initial manifestation of an ‘International Collaborative Pedagogical Program' between Emory, Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata, and myself in London. First step in this Project involved a live international linkup between Atlanta, London and the Nistarini Women's College, Purulia, West Bengal, in September 2011. The Nistarini students performed their Bengali version of the Witches from Macbeth. The project seeks to create a scalable model that will offer real-time interactive opportunities to isolated academic communities throughout the world. Official collaborator is the Rose Theatre, Kingston upon Thames. The Project is in negotiation with universities in Casablanca, Marrakech and Ifrane, Morocco, and seeks to expand into Israel and Cuba.

Created ‘Shakespeare Performance Specialist in Virtual Residence' at Emory University, Atlanta, in June 2011. This title is in recognition of ‘From Type to Skype: Shakespeare in the Digital Age', which represents live interactive teaching seminars that explore Shakespearean plays as literary and performance texts. These are conducted from the UK via Skype with undergraduate students at Emory University. Developed during the Spring and Fall Semester of 2011, and offered again in Spring (and as a special ‘Maymester' course) 2012, these live class seminars, in association with and facilitated by Dr Sheila Cavanagh at Emory, form the basis of two major MLA presentations in Seattle and the SAA workshop in Boston. They also lead to a number of publications on the international pedagogic opportunities offered by digital communication. Personal involvement in these seminars is funded by competitive grant from the Center for Faculty Development and Excellence at Emory University and by funding from the Information Technology Division of Emory University.

Present research interest: Censoring the Bard: Cultural and Political Pressure in Shakespeare Performance. This focuses on the interconnectivity of cultural, financial and theatrical determinants on published plays, scripts, theatrical performances and films. It explores the broader implications of permeable dramatic texts, whether mediated by theatre directors, literary and dramatic editors, film and television directors and producers, or political regimes. T his project invites readers and viewers to consider the range of overt and hidden influences that construct and impede cultural production. The Keynote Speech in Portugal (2012) and conference paper at Cambridge (2011) form significant parts of this research.

Editor of digital edition of William Davenant's The Cruel Brother, for ‘Digital Renaissance Editions: Early Modern Drama Online' (University of Western Australia and ‘Internet Shakespeare Editions' at the University of Victoria), and co-editing the anonymous Fair Em with Brett Hirsch (UWA).

Member of the Editorial Board for the Map of Early Modern London, University of Victoria, Canada, at invitation of Janelle Jenstad. As a Liveryman (Officer in The Worshipful Company of Poulters) and Freeman of the City of London, I offer insight and access to significant historical resources.

Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, with particular interest in educational and social reform.

Participant in the London Renaissance and London Shakespeare Seminars.

Member of: Modern Language Association; Society for Theatre Research; British Shakespeare Association; The Malone Society; Shakespeare Association of America; Medieval and Renaissance Drama Society; Modern Humanities Research Association.

RELATED PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Actor, Director and Dramaturg

Offering practice-based workshops and classroom exercises that increase the present engagement and future employability of students.

Extensive experience as professional actor/theatre practitioner.

Theatre Actor: Albany in King Lear (Ludlow Shakespeare Festival), Bernardo in Hamlet (Royal Court London), Camillo in The Winter's Tale (Manchester Royal Exchange), Charles in As You Like It (Birmingham Rep), plus parts in Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice (Old Vic).

Royal National Theatre player in Guys and Dolls, The Beggar's Opera and Schweyck in the Second World War. Other productions include Of Mice and Men (Swan Worcester), Eden's Empire (Finborough, London), The Great White Hope and Stockwell (Tricycle Theatre Kilburn). Principal with the Lindsay Kemp Theatre Company (Varieté).

‘Read Not Dead' series of productions at Shakespeare's Globe, London, appearing in The Return from Parnassus, Alphonsus Emperor of Germany, Albertus Wallenstein, Mother Bombie.

Television and film Actor: The Forsyte Saga, Heartbeat, Cracker, Wycliffe, The Professionals, Dempsey and Makepeace, The Bill, London's Burning, Hot Metal, Beast, Annie's Bar, Casualty, Linda La Plante's Trial & Retribution IV, and the film, Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady.

Director : Jonathan Dove's Greed and Stephen Oliver's Cinderella; or, The Vindication of Sloth (Bite-Size Opera, London, 2009). William Walton's The Bear (Trinity College of Music/Greenwich Opera Ensemble, 2008), in aid of The Coombe Trust, a London charity offering respite care for children of drug-dependant adults.

Dramaturg and Directorial Assistant: Dekker and Webster's Westward Ho! (White Bear, Kennington, 2008).

This previous career profile (and the retention of a British Actors Equity card) ensures that students benefit from the practical experience of a professional actor when considering the performative aspect of Shakespearean, Early Modern and contemporary dramatic texts.

Journalist and Theatre Reviewer  

Offering significant ‘creative writing' experience of both commercial and academic reviewing.

Since 2002, official Theatre Reviewer of all productions at the RSC in Stratford upon Avon, as well as productions staged at the Donmar Warehouse, London's Old Vic, The Royal Court Theatre, Royal National Theatre, The Barbican, Shakespeare's Globe London and London's West End and provincial theatre.

Drama Critic and Interviewer (accredited ‘Press Card' member of the NUJ [National Union of Journalists]) for British Theatre Guide, Rogues and Vagabonds and CurtainUp, theatre resources based in UK and USA.

Interviews with playwrights, including Timberlake Wertenbaker (Jenufa, Arcola) and Howard Barker (The Dying of Today, Arcola).

Interviews with directors, including Edward Hall (A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Winter's Tale, Propeller Theatre), Stephen Unwin (Romeo and Juliet and King Lear, English Touring Theatre) and Gregory Doran (Venus and Adonis, RSC).

Interviews with actors, including Michael Pennington (Sweet William), Greg Hicks (An Enemy of the People), Peter Eyre (Richard II) and David Rintoul (Edward III), as well as Tony Benn about his anti-war theatrical performances.

ADDITIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE

Chair and Director of Merton (Melrose) Management Company, a residents' company formed to care for the fabric of an 1870s converted schoolhouse. Duties include chairing directors' meetings and negotiating with third parties.