KiRSe (Kingston Reading Shakespeare) is the play-reading thread in the KiSS programme. They are cold table reading, with parts chosen or allocated on the night and casting is not gender-specific. No previous knowledge or experience is needed to join in. The sessions are prepared and curated by independent scholar-director Gerald Baker who also provides excellent introductions to the plays on the night of their reading. We usually do three plays per term.
The first readings (in the Autumn of 2016) dealt with the so-called Shakespeare Volume One, namely, three plays that were bound together in a book of that title in the King’s library before the Civil War. The second readings (Spring 2017) consisted of Shakespeare’s collaborators. The current third and fourth readings will deal with plays added to the Shakespearean canon after the publication of the first folio.
This term’s readings will be in the Gallery of the Rose Theatre in Kingston, starting at 6pm and reading straight through without cuts. There will be a very small number of copies available at each reading but it would help immeasurably if you can bring an edition with you. The Complete Oxford Shakespeare edited by Wells and Taylor in its second edition of 2005 includes all of the plays we’re reading this term.
In the spring the programme will be Edward III, the additions to The Spanish Tragedy and the Cardenio adaptation Double Falsehood, finishing with Arden of Faversham (dates below).
Below is a list of the read plays:
- Spring 2018:
- Feb 1: Edward III
- Feb 22: Double Falsehood
- Mar 15: Arden of Faversham
- Fall 2017 (‘To lose no drop’: Retrieving the Shakespeare Canon):
- Oct 19: Pericles Prince of Tyre
- Nov 9: Two Noble Kinsmen
- Nov 30: Sir Thomas More
- Spring 2017 (Shakespeare’s Collaborators):
- Fall 2016 (Shakespeare Volume One):
- Oct 13: Fair Em
- Nov 3: Mucedorus
- Dec 1: The Merry Devil of Edmonton
Kingston Shakespeare Seminar 