The Twin and the Mirror:
The Comedy of Errors andTwelfth Night

22-30 August 2024

Since classical antiquity, the Mediterranean has been a breeding ground for cultural formation and transformation, extraordinarily capitalised on by Shakespeare, who set many of his plays there, re-elaborating narratives, cultural models, theatregrams, epistemological perspectives, and visual and material art forms. In turn, Italy and the other Mediterranean cultures are nowadays responding to the aesthetic and cultural stimuli of those plays, with ever new interpretations and reinterpretations.

The SaM Summer School will approach Shakespeare and the Mediterranean from a double perspective that integrates source studies and performance studies: from the Mediterranean sources of Shakespeare to Shakespeare as a source of new adaptations and rewritings in the heart of the Mediterranean. The fourth edition will concentrate on The Comedy of Errors and Twelfth Night in a Mediterranean context.

Participants to the summer school are free to choose in-person or remote attendance (group A only). Minimum attendance: 80%. Participants will be divided into three groups:

  • BA students (third year and near-graduates); Master’s and Doctoral students, as well as schoolteachers (Group A). Students of group A should have at least a B2 level in English.
  • Acting School students and graduates as well as performers (Group B).
  • Journalists, writers, dramaturgs, directors, theatre critics, students and professionals in media and communication, literature students (Group C).

The summer school is designed as a cycle of lectures and workshops offered in a face-to-face environment or as synchronous online teaching (only for Group A activities). Participants in group A are free to choose the most suitable mode. Students will receive some study material by 10 July 2024. 

Participants in group B will be invited to join a series of free, live-virtual classes in Shakespeare’s verse, prior to the start of the summer school. The classes will be led by Jaq Bessell, and details of these will follow registration. 

From the 22nd to the 29th of August the fourth edition of the Verona Shakespeare Fringe (VSF) will take place at the Teatro Camploy. Attendance to the Festival and the Q&A sessions is compulsory for the students of the summer school. 

The Summer School will admit up to 75 participants (30 in Group A, 30 in Group B and 15 in Group C)

Classes will be held in English. Minimum attendance: 80% on site (or online for group A students).

Participants can book their accommodation independently, taking into account that the summer school activities will take place in the following locations:

Some options:

Applications are open and will close on 12 May 2024.

Admitted candidates will be notified by 21 May 2024. Candidates will need to confirm their participation by 28 May 2024.

People on the waiting list will be contacted by 4 June 2024.

The deadline for the tuition fee payment is 11 June 2024. Withdrawals will be accepted within 7 days of the date of the payment.

End-of-course essays will be due by 30 November 2024.

Group A programme

Group B programme

Group C programme

Application

VSF

For information please write to: skene@ateneo.univr.it

 
Director: Silvia Bigliazzi
 
Scientific Committee: Chiara Battisti, Silvia Bigliazzi, Sidia Fiorato, Cristiano Ragni, Emanuel Stelzer
 
Organising Committee: Petra Bjelica, Simona Brunetti, Susan Payne, Roberta Zanoni

Staff

Chiara Battisti (University di Verona)

Jaq Bessell (GSA, University of Surrey)

Alessandro Bigardi (filmmaker)

Silvia Bigliazzi (University of Verona)

Petra Bjelica (University of Verona)

John Blondell (Westmont College and Lit Moon Theatre Company, Santa Barbara CA)

Simona Brunetti (University of Verona)

Fernando Cioni (University of Florence)

Andrea Coppone (Performer)

Tania Demetriou (University of Cambridge)

Paul Edmondson (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon)

Sidia Fiorato (University of Verona)

 

Jason Lawrence (University of Hull)

Micha Lazarus (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)

Susan Payne (University of Florence)

Cristiano Ragni (University of Verona)

Beatrice Righetti (University of Verona)

Alberto Rizzi (Director – Ippogrifo Produzioni)

David Schalkwyk (Queen Mary University of London)

Emanuel Stelzer (University of Verona)

Janice Valls-Russell (University Paul Valéry, Montpellier)

Stanley Wells (Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Stratford-upon-Avon)

Roberta Zanoni (University of Verona)

In collaboration with:

  • The Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham
  • Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
  • Cambridge University
  • Guildford School of Acting, University of Surrey
  • Faculty of Dramatic Arts – University of Belgrade
  • Westmont College, Santa Barbara (CA)
  • Comune di Verona – Estate teatrale

With the support of:

Under the auspices: