2019 PRESS RELEASES
december 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe announces one-off events Notes to the Forgotten She-Wolves and Everything I Ever Wanted to Tell My Daughter About Men in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse next year
Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce further details of Notes to the Forgotten SheWolves, and Everything I Ever Wanted to Tell My Daughter About Men; one-off performances coming to the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse in January and February 2020.
November 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe announces full casting for Swive [Elizabeth], created by Ella Hickson and Natalie Abrahami
Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce full casting for the world premiere of Swive [Elizabeth].
Created by award-winning writer Ella Hickson and award-winning director Natalie Abrahami, and designed by Ben Stones, this new play will shine candlelight on the ways and means by which women in power negotiate patriarchal pressure in order to get their way.
oCTOBER 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe announces full casting for Christmas at the (Snow) Globe by Sandi Toksvig and Jenifer Toksvig
Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce the full company for Christmas at the (Snow) Globe, created and directed by Sandi Toksvig and Jenifer Toksvig, and designed by Charlie Cridlan.
Opening on Thursday 19 December, this brand new production will invite audiences to pack into the open-air theatre wrapped in their warmest Christmas jumpers and let loose their Christmas spirit. To celebrate the spirit of storytelling and the joy of gift-giving, audience members will also be invited to bring a new children’s book to put under the 13-foot Christmas tree on the Globe stage. Books will be donated to children’s charities across Southwark. The Globe Christmas tree has been kindly donated by the Embassy of Denmark, London.
The production will feature integrated BSL, and in a Globe first, will include a touch and scent tour for visually impaired patrons ahead of the Audio Described performance on Saturday 21 December.
september 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe announces three new writers-in-residence
Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce three new writers-in-residence: Sami Ibrahim, Laura Lomas and Sabrina Mahfouz.The writers are taking part in the Globe’s inaugural ‘Scriptorium’, a new twelve-month residency for three playwrights which will see them create bespoke work for the outdoor Globe Theatre and indoor candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, culminating in a co-written production for the Globe Theatre to be staged in summer 2020.
July 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe announces 2019/20 Sam Wanamaker Playhouse Season: She Wolves and Shrews
Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce the 2019/20 Sam Wanamaker Playhouse Season. Centred around She Wolves and Shrews, the season is a celebration and interrogation of women, power, and the role of the feminine in shaping our past, present and future.
June 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe announces full casting for As You Like It
Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce the full cast for William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, co-directed by Federay Holmes and Elle While, opening on Wednesday 7 August. The production returns to the Globe Theatre following a critically acclaimed run in summer 2018.
June 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe celebrates founder Sam Wanamaker’s centenary with 2019 Sam Wanamaker Award and Sam Wanamaker Fellowship Lecture
The Globe is delighted to announce that Dr Diana Devlin is the recipient of this year’s Sam Wanamaker Award, marking the start of the Globe’s festivities to celebrate its founder Sam Wanamaker’s 100th birthday.
Diana receives the award in recognition of her pioneering support of the Globe for the past 47 years. She will also unveil her new biography of Sam, Sam Wanamaker: A Global Performer this evening, where she will give the annual Sam Wanamaker Fellowship Lecture to coincide with the book’s launch. Today also marks the start of the Wanamaker 100 campaign, in which the Globe will aim to raise £100,000 to support Sam’s legacy and continue his visionary work.
June 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe announces programme of events for ‘Shakespeare and Poland’, a new festival for 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce the programme for ‘Shakespeare and Poland’, a ten-day festival opening on Wednesday 26 June. The festival of performances, music and panel discussions celebrates Poland’s affinity with Shakespeare and marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of artist, playwright and Shakespeare interpreter, Stanisław Wyspiański.
Shakespeare’s Globe has commissioned the first translation of Wyspianski’s seminal works, Hamlet Study and The Death of Ophelia, especially for the festival and The Death of Ophelia will receive its world premiere in English in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse.
may 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe Annual Review: outlining activities from Spring 2018 – Spring 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe has announced that turnover for the year ending 31 October 2018 was £24 million, providing a surplus of £374,000 to be reinvested in the continuing development of the organisation.
The Globe continues to operate without public subsidy, and almost 90% of income is generated by mission-based and commercial activities, the remaining 10% garnered from corporate partnership support and donations. Theatre ticket sales and admission charges generate almost three quarters of income, yet over 40% percent of tickets are only £5.
April 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe announces programme for new festival, ‘Women & Power’, featuring Clean Break, Winsom Pinnock, Sarah Frankcom and Donna Zuckerberg
Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce the programme for ‘Women & Power’, a new festival of events opening on Sunday 12 May 2018.
With performances, panel discussions, and a scholarly symposium, the festival will celebrate the work and voices of women of all backgrounds and will explore how the work of Shakespeare speaks to the current gender revolution, and how women can use Shakespearean performance to tell their own stories of oppression.
April 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe announces full casting for The Merry Wives of Windsor and Bartholomew Fair
Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce the full cast for William Shakespeare’s The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Elle While, and Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair, directed by Blanche McIntyre.
The Merry Wives of Windsor opens on Friday 17 May in The Globe Theatre. Bartholomew Fair opens on Friday 23 August in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. The Merry Wives of Windsor will be broadcast live into cinemas from The Globe at 7.20pm on Thursday 20 June.
March 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe Archive: Theatres, Players & Performance Now Published Online
Archives from the world-renowned Shakespeare’s Globe are now available online, as part of a collaboration with award-winning primary source publisher, Adam Matthew Digital.
The archival materials in this collection offer a comprehensive insight into Sam Wanamaker’s dream reconstruction of the original 1599 Globe Theatre, as well as detailing the way in which this unique space was constructed as part of a radical theatrical experiment through which to examine the plays of William Shakespeare and others. Over 200 productions from 1997-2016 are documented through prompt books, wardrobe notes, music, performance photographs, programmes, publicity and marketing material, research, and show reports, giving researchers unprecedented access to the history of Shakespeare’s Globe.
February 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe announces full casting for Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank: Romeo and Juliet
Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce the full cast for the Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production of Romeo and Juliet. Michael Oakley returns to direct this full-scale, fast-paced production created especially for young people, which will open on Thursday 28 February until Wednesday 27 March. Over20,000 free ticketshave been allocated to state secondary schools in London and Birmingham, with thousands more students expected to watch the production during its run.
January 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe announces full casting for Summer 2019 tour
Brendan O’Hea returns to direct Globe on Tour, where a company of eight actors will once again offer audiences around the world a trio of plays which this year explore the themes of refuge and displacement. Continuing last summer’s experiment, which revived the Shakespearean tradition of allowing audiences to vote for the play they’d like to see, this year’s audiences will cast their votes for The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night or Pericles, all stories of lost families, new homes, and what it means to belong. The tour will return to the Globe stage for Refugee Week (17 – 23 June) as part of a wider programme of events in which refugee artists, performers and audiences will all share their stories.
January 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe announces Summer Season 2019
Shakespeare’s Globe is delighted to announce the Summer Season 2019. Celebrating and interrogating our ‘sceptred isle’ through Shakespeare’s history plays, a year-long journey begins with Richard II, opening 22 February in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, continuing into the Globe Theatre this summer with Henry IV Parts 1 and 2, and Henry V. The season also includes A Midsummer Night’s Dream, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair, and the return of 2018’s As You Like It. Robin Hood tales will form the core of the Read Not Dead series this year, and festivals throughout the summer include Women & Power and Poland is Hamlet. This year’s Playing Shakespeare with Deutsche Bank production will be Romeo and Juliet, opening on 28 February, with 20,000 free tickets available to state secondary schools. The Shakespeare’s Globe Touring Ensemble will once again present a trio of plays for the audience to choose from: The Comedy of Errors, Pericles, and Twelfth Night.