Globe Seminar 2006 REPORT

A Cultural Seminar for Drama Teachers in London

Organised by the ESU and Globe Education at Shakespeare’s Globe, London
13 – 19 August 2006


The successful scholarship winner was Koplányi Karolina pictured here with Steve Jones at the recent OUP training at Városmajori Gimnázium, Budapest, where she also teaches. You will remember some earlier participants like Torda Márta and Czikai Zsuzsa.

Koplányi Karolina has sent us the report below and some of her photographs taken this year at the event.

With the generous support of the English Speaking Union I had the wonderful opportunity to take part in a week-long cultural seminar run by the English Speaking Union and Globe Education at Shakespeare’s Globe in London between 13-19 August 2006.
The course, entitled Shakespeare and His Stage aiming to promote and encourage the performance and appreciation of Shakespeare, offered us remarkable experience to explore new teaching methods, attend various performances, discuss theatre with actors and several experts responsible for design, direction, movement, music and text.
The brilliantly organised programme with its workshops, tours, discussions, talks, seminars gave us insight into the relationship the Globe architecture creates between actor and audience, and informed us about how discoveries being made at the Globe Theatre can refine our understanding of Shakespeare in performance as well as in our approaches to teaching Shakespeare in the classroom.
The course also provided us a wonderful opportunity to consider how Shakespeare is translated both in terms of performance and classroom curricula all over the world, a truly unique experience for all the members of an international group representing twenty astonishingly diverse nations. This expceptionally multicultural aspect of the whole seminar proved to be an amazing and undoubtedly unforgettable experience for all of us.
The seminar was marked by a reception and dinner at ESU headquarters, Dartmouth House, where Mrs Valerie Mitchell OBE, ESU Director General gave us a warm welcome. For all of us this evening was both a most wonderful oppotunity to see all the dedication and commitment ESU holds to the promotion of international understanding and human achievement through the use of English, and also a truly emotional moment to feel priviledged to be part of its successful work.