DOI: 10.1057/9781137426864.0001 Open-Air Shakespeare
Global Shakespeares General Editor: Alexa Huang Editorial Advisory Board: Mark Thornton Burnett, Queen s University Belfast, UK; Peter Donaldson, MIT, USA; Mark Houlahan, University of Waikato, New Zealand; Douglas Lanier, University of New Hampshire, USA; Dennis Kennedy, Trinity College Dublin, UK; Margaret Litvin, Boston University, USA; Ryuta Minami, Shirayuri College, Tokyo, Japan; Alfredo Michel Modenessi, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico; David Schalkwyk, Folger Shakespeare Library, USA; Ayanna Thompson, George Washington University, USA; Poonam Trivedi, Indraprastha College, University of Delhi, India This series in the innovative Palgrave Pivot format explores the global afterlife of Shakespearean drama, poetry, and motifs in its literary, performative, and digital forms of expression in the twentieth and twentyfirst centuries. Published within three months of acceptance of final manuscript, these landmark studies of between 25,000 to 50,000 words will capture global Shakespeares as they evolve. Disseminating big ideas and cutting-edge research in e-book and print formats, and drawing upon openaccess resources such as the Global Shakespeares digital archive (http://globalshakespeares.org/), this series marks a significant addition to scholarship in one of the most exciting areas of Shakespeare studies today. Titles include: Rosemary Gaby OPEN-AIR SHAKESPEARE Under Australian Skies DOI: 10.1057/9781137426864.0001
Open-Air Shakespeare: Under Australian Skies Rosemary Gaby Senior Lecturer, University of Tasmania, Australia DOI: 10.1057/9781137426864.0001
Rosemary Gaby 2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-42685-7 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6 10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978-1-137-42686-4 PDF ISBN: 978-1-349-49093-6 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. www.palgrave.com/pivot doi: 10.1057/9781137426864
Contents List of Images Acknowledgements Introduction: Open-Air Shakespeare, Space, Place, and Performance 1 1 Early Experiments: Pastoral and Elizabethan Staging 17 2 Pageants and Festivals: Shakespeare in the Street 41 3 Glenn Elston and the Rise of Picnic Shakespeares 56 4 From Local Park to National Park: After the 1980s 77 Conclusion 107 Select Bibliography 112 Index 118 vi vii DOI: 10.1057/9781137426864.0001 v
List of Images 0.1 Rippon Lea, Elsternwick 2 1.1 Government House, Perth 24 1.2 The Sunken Garden, University of Western Australia 33 2.1 Stage for The Comedy of Errors, directed by Scott Witt, Shakespeare in the Park, Toowoomba (2006) 50 2.2 Audience and stage prior to The Winter s Tale, directed by David Burton, Emily Burton, and Kate Murphy, Shakespeare in the Park, Toowoomba (2013) 52 3.1 A Midsummer Night s Dream, directed by Glenn Elston, Australian Shakespeare Company (2014) 59 3.2 A Midsummer Night s Dream, directed by Glenn Elston, Australian Shakespeare Company (2014) 73 4.1 The Tempest, directed by Alex Rigozzi, Directions Theatre Company (2011) 89 4.2 A Midsummer Night s Dream, directed by Paige Newmark for Shakespeare WA (Western Australia) (2009) 94 4.3 The Tempest at Loch Ard Gorge, directed by Bruce Widdop, Ozact (2007) 100 vi DOI: 10.1057/9781137426864.0002
Acknowledgements My research on open-air Shakespeares has been supported by many institutions and individuals over the past decade. I am indebted to the University of Tasmania for study leave support and research funding that enabled me to see numerous productions around Australia and visit libraries and performance archives in every state. The staff at several institutions have helped me accumulate information about the productions discussed in this book. In particular I would like to thank staff at the ACT Heritage Library, the Performing Arts Collection at Adelaide s Festival Centre, the University of Western Australia Archives, the University of New South Wales Library, the Queensland Performing Arts Centre Library, and the Northern Territory Library, Darwin. The online performance database, AustStage and, more recently, the National Library of Australia s digitized newspaper resource, Trove, have been of invaluable assistance. Thanks are also due to the theatre practitioners who have supplied information about their work; in particular I would like to acknowledge the help I have received from Paige Newmark, Bruce and Lisa Widdop, Ingrid Ganley, Scott Alderdice, Robert Jarman, and the late Richard Davey. I am indebted to Laurie Johnson, Darryl Chalk, and the University of Southern Queensland for providing opportunities to see Shakespeare in the Park in Toowoomba and to Rebecca Scollen for assistance in sourcing images. The images for Chapter 2 are courtesy of USQ photography (2.1) and USQ Artsworx (2.2). The Australian DOI: 10.1057/9781137426864.0003 vii
viii Acknowledgements Shakespeare Company kindly provided permission to reproduce Matthew Deller s images from A Midsummer Night s Dream (3.1 and 3.2). I would like to thank Ingrid Ganley for permission to reproduce Tony McKendrick s photo from the Directions Theatre Company production of The Tempest (4.1) and the photo from Shakespeare WA s A Midsummer Night s Dream (4.2) is courtesy of Paige Newmark. Other images are my own. I am grateful to Alexa Huang and Ben Doyle for their encouragement and advice on the publication process, and to the staff at Palgrave Macmillan for assistance on the final stages of this book. My greatest debt is to my husband, Alex, for the long hours of driving to performances and production sites, and to my children, Johanna and Ari, who lost count of the outdoor Shakespeare performances they ve seen long ago. DOI: 10.1057/9781137426864.0003