Cultural seminars

Cultural Seminar for Teachers at Shakespeare’s Globe, London

Background
Inaugurated in 1992, the Cultural Seminar is aimed principally at those who are in a position to strengthen cultural links between Britain and their own country through visits and exchanges. In practice, this has meant teachers of a range of subjects in the Humanities at both secondary and tertiary levels, students and members of cultural organisations, many of whom are directly involved with the running of the English-Speaking Union’s overseas networks. As well as improving their knowledge of British culture and history, the week long residential seminar allows participants to share their experiences and cultures through the shared medium of the English language.

Until 2004, the Seminars have been held principally at colleges of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, with a number of exceptions. In 1994 the Seminar was taught at the Centre Internationale D’Etudes Pedagogique Sevres in Paris, in 1996 partly in Cambridge and partly in Ambleside in the Lake District, and in 1997 it took place at Imperial College, London. We are very pleased that the Cultural Seminar returned to London in 2004, being based at the home of our new partners, Shakespeare’s Globe and is now principally aimed at teachers of English and Theatre for whom English is a second language.

ESU and Globe Education Cultural Seminar for Teachers 2009

Participants gathered on the staircase at Dartmouth House.

Teaching Shakespeare in the classroom can often be challenging and making it ‘accessible’ for students can be a petrifying feat for a teacher. The Globe Cultural Seminar is an intense week of seminars, plays and workshops which tackle some of the issues when teaching Shakespeare to students. Globe Education work with teachers to develop new and exciting ways of exploring Shakespeare’s works which help bring Shakespeare texts to life.

Twenty teachers from twenty countries took part in the Globe Cultural Seminar this August. The Globe Cultural Seminar is specifically for teachers whose first language is not English. The Cultural Seminar allows teachers the opportunity to develop and exchange their ideas on teaching Shakespeare with people across the globe. The one week course also aims to equip the teachers with active, practical approaches to teaching Shakespeare creatively in the classroom that will inspire, enhance and develop classroom practice.

During the week, the group went to the performances of Romeo and Juliet, As You Like It and Troilus and Cressida and had the opportunity to meet the Company Members for a Q & A Session. Through movement workshops, voice classes and demonstrations in costume and design, the group examined the relationship between actor and audience, considering how it could inform their understanding of the relationship between teacher and student within the classroom. Patrick Spottiswoode, Director of Globe Education led workshops on ‘Shakespeare in Several Classrooms’ and ‘Shakespeare in Several Tongues’, which helped the teachers consider how Shakespeare is translated both in terms of performance and classroom curricula across the world.

Ligija Kaminskiene from Lithuania:
‘The seminar is an excellent source of teaching methods, especially in my field, which is translation studies. I treasure the handouts I have received, the books that Patrick Spottiswoode gave us and the resource materials made available to us at the Globe’.

Stella Achilleos from Cyprus:
‘The sessions we attended during the seminar highlighted the rich and multiple lines of meaning opened up by the Shakespearean text in performance and introduced us to various exercises and methods that can be used in the classroom to demonstrate that. Such practical approaches to teaching Shakespeare would be particularly useful for my students, as most of them will become teachers of English in the public school sector.’

Although only twenty teachers attend the course annually, the outreach of the course is much wider as these teachers return to their own countries sharing their new ideas with their colleagues and go on to practice new methods of teaching Shakespeare to their students. Marcos Daud from Brazil wrote ‘When I return to Brazil I intend to share all that I have learned during the course with the teachers of our school. The new ideas I have learnt during my week, will hopefully lead to fresh discussions and new approaches. Shakespeare is the basis of our work in our school and the Seminar was very helpful’. The teachers from the course have continued to stay in touch with each other.

A huge thanks goes to the Education Team at Shakespeare’s Globe: Patrick Spottiswoode, Madeline Knights, Adrienne Gillam and Hannah Massey. A thanks also goes to our sponsors.

ESU and Globe Education Cultural Seminar for Teachers 2008

Delegates at Dartmouth House for the reception dinner

The fifth English-Speaking Union Shakespeare’s Globe Cultural Seminar took place in August this year. The week long seminar aims to promote and encourage the performance and appreciation of Shakespeare and is specifically aimed at teachers for whom English is a second language. Twenty delegates from twenty countries were selected to attend in 2008. Entitled Shakespeare and His Stage, the course examined Shakespeare’s plays in the context of the performance space for which they were written and provided participants with an opportunity to see his works truly brought to life.

Delegates were able to explore new teaching methods, attend performances including King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Merry Wives of Windsor and discuss theatre with the actors and enjoy workshops that approached teaching Shakespeare in a dynamic and exciting way. During this activity packed course participants learned how to design clothes for the Elizabethan stage with the Master of Clothing and Properties, express words though motion, with the Master of Movement, and vocalise the written word with the Masters of Play and Verse. Following the performance of The Merry Wives of Windsor, delegates had the rare opportunity to interview Company Members.

Attended by teachers and lecturers from an extremely diverse range of nations, the seminar enabled participants not only to learn more about Shakespeare but also to experience the different cultures represented from around the globe.

Valerie Mitchell welcomed Delegates and Globe staff to Dartmouth House for a workshop entitled Period Music and Globe Productions followed by a dinner to mark the Seminar where she paid tribute to Patrick Spottiswoode, Director, Globe Education and his team. The ESU expresses its deep gratitude to Lloyd George Management Ltd and to ESU London Branch, for their immense generosity and support.

Quotes from past delegates

The Cultural Seminar with Globe Education has exceeded all the expectations I had. Along with being highly informative, every minute of it was enjoyable, I made friends with twenty people of different nationalities, shared their experience and vision and I think, this is the most important function of the ESU and the Globe!”; Lela Dumbadze, Georgia

"The benefits of the course are immense, since the cultural and language enrichment that it provided will enable us, the course participants, to incorporate many new ideas and practical approaches into our teaching, and will ultimately stimulate the language learning environments in the institutions to which we return." Karolina Koplányi, Hungary

"This was one of the most memorable experiences of my life." Vinyadinhee Vanarase, India

"I learned so much, not only about Shakespeare, but also about myself. I expanded both my knowledge and my interests. And, of course, met many wonderful people from all around the world." Katarina Ciric, Serbia

"I have spent a wonderful week in London. During this period I learnt many things, I saw many places, I had the opportunity of sharing information about different methods of teaching with the other delegates. After this experience I can consider myself a fulfilled teacher. Moreover, I think that this experience will be useful for my students, especially when discussing Shakespeare. Last but not least, I must mention the importance of the group that we, the ESU delegates, have formed. We have come from twenty different countries, spent a week together and now I can say I have nineteen friends worldwide." Razvan Cernica, Romania

Delegates to the ESU & Globe Education Cultural Seminar