INTERPRETING SHAKESPEARE PROFESSIONAL LEARNING DAY
9.00AM – 9.30AM
REGISTRATION: ACMI FED SQUARE ENTRANCE
9.30AM – 9.45AM
WELCOME: CINEMA 2
9.45AM – 10.30AM
CINEMA FOCUS SESSIONS
SESSION A CINEMA 1
Interpreting Romeo and Juliet on film Tony Thompson
SESSION B CINEMA 2
Staging and adapting Macbeth Dr Rob Conkie
10.30AM – 11.00AM MORNING TEA
11.00AM – 1.00PM
BREAK OUT SESSIONS
SESSION 1A:
CINEMA 1
SESSION 1B:
CINEMA 2
SESSION 1C
STUDIO 1
Film screening:
Romeo and
Juliet 2013
Film
screening:
Macbeth 2015
Green screen
workshop:
interpret and
create
Shakespearean
characters
1 PM – 2PM
SESSION
1D STUDIO
2
‘Sweding’
Shakespear
e
production
workshop
SESSION 1E
BOARD
ROOM
Dramaturgy in
the classroom
+
iPad Activity:
Macbeth’s
witches
SESSION 1F
THE CUBE
Exploring
Romeo and
Juliet
+
Shakespeare
in
performance
LUNCH
2PM – 3PM BREAK OUT SESSIONS
SESSION 2A:
CINEMA 1
SESSION 2B:
CINEMA 2
SESSION 2C
STUDIO 1
SESSION 2D
STUDIO 2
Macbeth on
screen and in the
classroom
Shakespeare's
lines,
Shakespeare
online
Green screen
workshop:
interpret and
create
Shakespearean
characters
Games,
transmedia
and
Shakespeare
SESSION
2E
BOARD
ROOM
iPad
Activity:
focus on
Luhrmann’s
Romeo &
Juliet
SESSION 2F
THE CUBE
Shakespeare,
teen films and
the language
of cinema
3PM -- 3.30PM CLOSING SESSION: CINEMA 2
3PM -- Professor Paul Salzman introduces the history of the Shakespeare texts we use today.
3.10PM Meet the presenters and get them to answer some of your burning questions about
Shakespeare.
PROGRAM DETAILS
FOCUS SESSIONS
A/ Interpreting Romeo and Juliet on film
Tony Thompson
Filmmakers have been drawn to Shakespeare since the earliest days of film production,
interpreting and reimagining Shakespeare’s texts and ideas in a variety of ways. In this session
writer and educator Tony Thompson focuses on Romeo and Juliet to explore what some of the
many screen adaptations of this play reveal about its themes and ideas.
B/ Staging and adapting Macbeth
Dr Rob Conkie
This session compares a very short section of the Macbeth script -- the shared lines of Macbeth
and Lady Macbeth after King Duncan's murder -- across multiple film and television (including
theatre productions filmed for TV) versions.
MORNING BREAKOUT SESSIONS
1A/ Film screening: Romeo and Juliet (Carlo Carlei, 2013, 118 min)
This sumptuous production of Romeo and Juliet has prompted some vociferous commentary
from the critics. Find out what the fuss is about and consider its potential as a talking point in
your classroom.
1B/ Film screening: Macbeth (Justin Kurzel, 2015, 113min)
See Justin Kurzel’s darkly brilliant portrayal of Macbeth as a man dehumanised by war. Forging
a connection between Shakespeare’s language and ideas and the poetic possibilities of cinema,
Macbeth is driven by the theme of loss and underscored by an unremitting pessimism about the
nature of humanity.
1C/ Green screen workshop: interpret and create Shakespearean characters (2-hour
session)
Anna Kuch (ACMI)
In this interactive session, participants work together to identify familiar and unexpected features
of a range of Shakespearean characters. Performing in pairs or small groups, they bring these
characters to life on the green screen.
1D/ ‘Sweding’ Shakespeare production workshop
Bridget Hanna (ACMI)
Using low budget techniques and an in-camera edit, make your own sweded Shakespeare film.
This is a great way to encourage students to engage creatively with Shakespearean
interpretation by identifying key themes, incorporating dramatic elements and experimenting
with language.
1E/ Dramaturgy in the Classroom + Exploring Macbeth’s witches using iPads
Tracey Bolton-Wood (Sacred Heart College, Kyneton) and Susan Bye (ACMI)
Part 1 -- Educator Tracey Bolton-Wood draws on the role of the dramaturg to suggest a range of
creative and interpretative projects designed to bring a new depth and understanding to your
students’ engagement with Shakespeare
Part 2 -- ACMI’s Susan Bye leads the group in iPad Activity: iPads offer a screening hub for
students to work in small groups to compare different screen interpretations of a single
Shakespeare text. In this session, participants read, interpret and share ideas about the diverse
representations of the witches in Macbeth.
1F/ Exploring Romeo and Juliet through Interpretation and Performance
Dr Terrie Waddell (La Trobe University), Dr Rob Conkie (La Trobe University) and La Trobe
University Theatre students
Part 1 – This session offers teachers a chance to revitalise their reading and teaching of Romeo
and Juliet. With notions of the body and emotion as a primary focus, Terrie explores Baz
Luhrmann’s signature style through the strategy of haptic visuality: so that ‘the eyes themselves
function like organs of touch’. Terrie also highlights a range of other texts that will support your
students’ engagement with the high stakes of this love story, its motifs and visual possibilities.
Part 2 – Theatre students from La Trobe University perform short extracts from Romeo and
Juliet juxtaposing original theatrical practices with those of contemporary film acting.
AFTERNOON BREAKOUT SESSIONS
2A/ Interpreting Macbeth
Dr Mike Nolan (La Trobe University) and Dr Susan Bye (ACMI)
In this session, Mike and Susan explore some of the many interpretations and responses to
Macbeth and suggest strategies and resources for the classroom. Participants are encouraged
to contribute to the conversation by sharing their ideas and practices.
2B/ Shakespeare's lines, Shakespeare online
Dr David McInnis (University of Melbourne)
Typing the word "Shakespeare" into Google currently yields something in the vicinity of thirteen
million hits. Which sites are actually useful to students? In this talk, Dr David McInnis offers
advice on the best online editions and performance databases of Shakespeare's plays,
including the Internet Shakespeare Editions and Global Shakespeares.
2C/ Green Screen: Interpret and create Shakespearean characters (One-hour session)
Ellen Manley (ACMI) and Professor Paul Salzman (La Trobe University)
Participants work together to identify familiar and unexpected features of a range of
Shakespearean characters. Performing in pairs or small groups, they bring these characters to
life on the green screen.
2D/ Games, transmedia and Shakespeare
Vincent Trundle (ACMI)
Draw on your students’ creative production skills while encouraging them to think about new
and complex ways of interpreting and engaging with Shakespeare.
2E/ iPad Activity: Focus on Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo & Juliet
Anna Kuch (ACMI)
Working in pairs, participants explore key scenes, respond to prompts and share discoveries.
This is a brilliant activity for encouraging students to form their own interpretations and
contribute ideas to class discussion.
2F/ Shakespeare, teen films and the language of cinema
Anna Dzenis (La Trobe University
Some critics describe teen film adaptations of Shakespeare as a ‘dumbing down’ of the
complexity of the original plays, and talk about them as opportunistically cashing in on the teen
market. Through a close reading of the cinematic language of image and performance in 10
Things I Hate About You and Luhrmann’s Romeo and Juliet, this presentation identifies a visual
and narrative sophistication that parallels Shakespeare’s semantic complexity.
PARTICIPANTS
Anna Dzenis -- is a lecturer in the Media Arts program at La Trobe University. She currently
teaches the subjects Introduction to Screen + Sound, Contemporary World Cinema and Screen
Criticism but has taught screen literacy extensively to both tertiary and high school students.
Her current research is focused on the intersection between film and visual arts, specifically the
relations between cinema and photography. She is also co-editor for the online journal of visual
media and history Screening the Past http://www.screeningthepast.com/
Anna Kuch -- is a passionate teacher, filmmaker and video editor. In her role as Education
Deliverer at ACMI, she works with students and teachers to encourage the creative use of
multimodal tools to tell engaging stories. Anna motivates students to work individually and
collaboratively as purposeful, innovative moving image creators and has a particular interest in
teaching Shakespeare.
Bridget Hanna -- is an Education Deliverer at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. She
is an enthusiastic and committed creative arts producer, author and educator. She uses her
background in screen and cultural studies and screen literacy to create original and practical
approaches to developing the multimodal talents of young people, enabling them to create and
communicate meanings in innovative ways.
David McInnis -- is the Gerry Higgins Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies at the University of
Melbourne. His teaching interests include Shakespeare in performance and adaptation.
Ellen Molloy -- has been an Education Deliverer at ACMI since 2010. She works with students
and teachers in workshops on the green screen and in studio 2 making films and animation.
Ellen has a background in Film and Photography as well as being an experienced primary
educator.
Mike Nolan -- is a lecturer in the Department of Creative Arts and English at La Trobe
University Melbourne. His teaching and research interests include the literature, especially
plays, of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods; French plays of the Seventeenth Century and
recovering the voices of French peasants of this period. He has recently completed a translation
of the casket sonnets attributed to Mary, Queen of Scots and is currently working on the prose
and poetry of Robert Southwell.
Paul Salzman -- is an Emeritus Professor of English literature at La Trobe University. He has
written five books on sixteenth and seventeenth century literature and has also produced seven
editions. He has a special interest in how Renaissance literature was written, read, performed,
published and disseminated. He likes to think of Shakespeare's plays as always open to
multiple manifestations and interpretations from the moment they were first written.
Rob Conkie -- is Senior Lecturer of Theatre and Drama at La Trobe University. His teaching
and research integrates practical and theoretical approaches to Shakespeare in performance.
He is the author of The Globe Theatre Project: Shakespeare and Authenticity (2006) and
Writing Performative Shakespeares: New Forms for Performance Criticism (2016) and of
numerous other book chapters and journals articles in the world’s leading academic presses.
His production of The Merry Wives of Windsor will tour to the New Fortune Theatre in Perth
before a two week season at fortyfivedownstairs in April of this year.
Susan Bye -- is an Education Programmer at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Her
primary role is to support the teaching of film as text to secondary school students, including
Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. She has worked with the La Trobe University Department of
Creative Arts and English to develop and deliver the cross-disciplinary subject Shakespeare
and the Moving Image.
Terrie Waddell -- is a Reader/Associate Professor of Media Arts, La Trobe University
(Australia). She focuses on the relationship between screen media, literature, gender, popular
culture and psychology. Her many publications include: Eavesdropping: The Psychotherapist in
Film and Television (co-editor Routledge, 2015), Wild/lives: Trickster, Place and Liminality on
Screen (Routledge, 2010), Mis/takes: Archetype, Myth and Identity in Screen Fiction
(Routledge, 2006), Lounge Critic: The Couch Theorist's Companion (co-editor, ACMI, 2004);
and Cultural Expressions of Evil and Wickedness: Wrath, Sex, Crime (editor, Rodopi, 2003).
Tony Thompson -- is the author of Shakespeare: The Most Famous Man in London, an
entertaining, student-focused exploration of Shakespeare in context. His Shakespeare-focused
workshops and presentations are popular with both students and teachers. He has also
published Summer of Monsters, a fictional account of Mary Shelley’s circle in Geneva, and
Vampires: The Unhistory of the Undead.
Tracey Bolton-Wood -- is an experienced English, Literature and Drama teacher, who currently
teaches at Sacred Heart College, Kyneton. During her time at VATE she presented a range of
professional development sessions to support and inspire classroom practice.
Vincent Trundle -- Vincent is the Digital Education Producer at ACMI and the coordinator of
ACMI Games Net - a program bringing together gifted students from across Victoria to develop
videogames. Vincent organises Screen It, ACMI’s annual film, animation and videogame
competition for students, and has been a key team member in creating and managing ACMI
online education resources, including the internationally recognised online creative studio space
Generator.