Wednesday April 23, 2014 marks the 450th anniversary of the birth of that most celebrated of all playwrights, William Shakespeare.  To celebrate the anniversary the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts at the University of the West Indies, Mona, will host two Shakespeare 450 Workshops on April 23 and 24, both led by UWI Senior Lecturer and Staff Tutor in Drama, Dr Brian Heap.
 
The first of these will be an Intensive Revision Workshop for CSEC students studying Shakespeare’s play A Midsummer Night’s Dream which will be held from 9am-4pm on Wednesday April 23 at the Philip Sherlock Centre. The workshop will take a playing approach to the text, involving students in the dramatic interpretation of the text, paying close attention to language, plot, character, relationships and imagery. The Registration fee for the all-day workshop is $1000 payable on the day, however interested students are advised to book in advance since the number of spaces is limited. Bookings can be made by phoning 977-9770.
 
From 9am-4pm on Thursday April 24 Dr Heap will conduct a second workshop, this time for interested teachers of English Literature, entitled Teaching Shakespeare. In this Continuing Professional Development workshop Dr Heap will share a range of creative approaches to working with different Shakespeare plays. Examples will be drawn from the CSEC text Julius Caesar and CAPE texts Othello, Twelfth Night, The Winter’s Tale and Richard III. The Registration fee for this all-day workshop is $2000 payable on the day, although once again prospective participants are advised to book spaces by phoning 977-9770. All participants will receive a Certificate of Participation.
 
To round off the celebrations, the Palace Amusement Company, as part of their National Theatre Live series, will be screening London’s Donmar Warehouse production of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus at 11-30am on Sunday April 27 at Sovereign Cineplex. Further details of ticket prices are available on the Palace Amusement website and in the press.
 
Many of Shakespeare’s pithy expressions and eloquent phrases have entered into the common usage of the English language and are still in wide circulation even in twenty first century Jamaica.