Events Calendar

SHAKESPEARE AND THE LAW: SCENES AND A PANEL ON LEGAL ISSUES FROM THE TEMPEST

Actors from Spirit of Shakespeare, a University of Texas student organization, will perform scenes from The Tempest as part of a panel discussion titled “Usurpation and Colonization: Shakespeare’s The Tempest,” on Thursday, September 22, 2011, in the Eidman Courtroom at the University of Texas School of Law from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.

The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored by the Department of English at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas School of Law. A reception will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Jamail Pavilion adjacent to the Eidman Courtroom in the Law School’s John B. Connally Center. (See Maps and Directions.) The panel, which includes the performance, starts at 7:00 p.m.

This year, four panelists will discuss legal and related issues central to The Tempest. They are: Angela K. Littwin, Assistant Professor at the University of Texas School of Law; James Loehlin, director of Shakespeare at Winedale and professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin; Robert Matney, actor, Austin Shakespeare, and graduate of the Shakespeare at Winedale progra; and Alan Friedman, professor of English, coordinator of Actors from the London Stage, and faculty advisor for Spirit of Shakespeare (SOS), a group of University of Texas students dedicated to promoting Shakespeare programs on campus and in the community.

For several years now, the SOS players have performed scenes from the annual Actors from the London Stage (AFTLS) play and have helped to augment and elucidate the Shakespeare and the Law panel discussions.

Shakespeare and the Law grew out of the AFTLS residency, a regular part of the University’s Shakespeare offerings since 1999, and a conference on “The Law and Other Performing Arts” held at the Law School in 2002. AFTLS, a London-based theatrical touring company, brings its unique educational and theatrical program, which features a troupe of five classically trained actors from major English theaters, to this campus and city for week-long residencies every year.

This year’s weeklong AFTLS residency begins September 26, 2011, with performances of The Tempest at UT’s B. Iden Payne Theatre running from Wednesday September 28 to Friday September 30, at 7:30 p.m. Purchase tickets from Texas Performing Arts online ticket office. On Saturday October 1, 2001 at 7:00 p.m, the play will be performed at the Winedale Historical Center in Round Top, Texas. For more information, log on to the Winedale website (http://www.utexas.edu/cola/progs/winedale).