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About the Origins and Evolution of the Shakespeare AV Database
Exploring the history, purpose, and impact of a comprehensive database of Shakespeare in performance.
Project History
The project’s aim was to develop and populate a database of approximately 4,000 titles, for all known Shakespeare film, television and radio productions, plus some audio productions and video recordings of stage performances, from 1899 to the present day, and worldwide in scope. This research is now delivered through the Shakespeare website, designed as a vehicle for scholarly publication and exchange, and displaying analyses of historical trends in audio-visual Shakespeare. The database is being maintained and updated thus ensuring its long-term practical value.
The BUFVC continues to collect and maintain comprehensive data on the availability of audio-visual Shakespeare worldwide via its online database Find DVDs (previously known as HERMES), which delivers details on audio-visual materials suitable for use HE/FE in the UK. The BUFVC has most recently produced a catalogue of audio-visual material in support of English examination curricula for GCSE AS and A2 English and Drama.
Project Background
The British Universities Film & Video Council (BUFVC) has been involved in the collection and dissemination of information on audio-visual Shakespeare for many years. It has gathered relevant information from distributors’ catalogues, reviews, publicity literature, electronic programme guides, online services and direct contact with producers and owners. It has published three audio-visual Shakespeare catalogues: Shakespeare: A list of audio-visual materials available in the UK (1986, edited by Olwen Terris); a second edition under this title (1987, ed. Olwen Terris), and, thirdly, As You Like It: AudioVisual Shakespeare (1992, edited by Cathy Grant).
Project Team (2005 - 2008)
As part of the project, new research was undertaken into audio-visual Shakespeare as a cultural and commercial phenomenon, using statistical analyses and historical trends to trace how the genre has positioned itself within the film and broadcast markets. The project also had a particular focus on Shakespeare and radio. The research project concluded in December 2008. The research team was made up of Senior Researcher Olwen Terris and Broadcast Researcher Eve-Marie Oesterlen. Up to 2007 Luke McKernan was the Principal Investigator, with Murray Weston taking over the post in 2008.
Olwen Terris was the Senior Researcher on the Shakespeare database project. She was formerly Chief Cataloguer at the National Film and Television Archive, London. Olwen is co-editor, with Luke McKernan, of Walking Shadows: Shakespeare in the National Film and Television Archive (1994) and, with Luke, programmed the complementary year-long season of Shakespeare on film and television at the National Film Theatre, London (1994-95). Before joining the NFTVA, Olwen worked for the BUFVC as Assistant Information Officer and then Database Manager. For the project, she researched Shakespeare on film and television, and video recordings of stage performances.
Eve-Marie Oesterlen was the Broadcast Researcher on the Shakespeare database project. She was previously Information Research Assistant at the Norddeutscher Rundfunk broadcasting corporation in Hannover, Germany. Eve-Marie is completing her PhD on Shakespeare’s late plays at the University of Hannover. Her research focussed Shakespeare on radio and television.
Murray Weston was Chief Executive, BUFVC. He was the Principal Investigator for the project during 2008. He has worked in theatre and opera, including four years with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Luke McKernan is Curator, Moving Images at the British Library. He previously managed the BUFVC’s Information Service, database deliveries and research projects, including the AHRC-funded Cinemagazines and the Projection of Britain. He has written books on newsreels and early cinema and co-edited (with Olwen Terris) Walking Shadows: Shakespeare in the National Film and Television Archive (1994). His research into early films of Shakespeare led to the British Film Institute’s successful home video release, SILENT SHAKESPEARE (1999). He is an advisor to the project.
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This project could not have been realised without the support of Shakespeare scholars, researchers, archivists and enthusiasts all over the world. The project team would particularly like to express their grateful thanks to the following:
- Dr I Arul Adam for chasing up Tamil versions of Shakespeare on film.
- Margaret Bartley, Publisher, The Arden Shakespeare, for providing us with the ‘raw data’ for our research.
- Jeff Walden at BBC Written Archives Centre.
- John Oliver from the BFI National Archive and David Sharp, Sean Delaney and the friendly staff from the BFI National Library for readily making valuable materials accessible.
- Rod Hamilton at the British Library Sound Archive.
- Wolfgang Schmidt at the Bundesarchiv Filmarchiv in Berlin.
- Christine Cadotte from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
- Peter Delin at the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin for compiling an indispensable list on ‘Where to search and buy films on Video and DVD worldwide’.
- Uschi Rühle and staff at the Deutsche Filminstitut (DIF).
- Georg Vorwerk, Heiner von Rüling and Karl Obermanns at the Deutsche Rundfunkarchiv (DRA) in Frankfurt and Babelsberg.
- Roger Elsgood from Art and Adventure for his generous support and commitment to producing radio Shakespeare with a difference.
- FIAF, for its address book.
- Futerra, for supplying us with stills from SEASONS ALTER.
- Elizabeth A. Walsh, Erin C. Blake and all staff at the Folger Shakespeare Library.
- Patrick Spottiswoode, Director at Globe Education.
- Kevin J. Harty from the La Salle University in Philadelphia.
- Peter Heinrich at the University for Television and Film in Munich.
- Tony Howard, author of Women as Hamlet: Performance and Interpretation in Theatre, Film and Fiction.
- Reiner Josef Klein at the Theatre Studies Media Department of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich.
- Zoran Sinobad, Rosemary C. Hanes and Karen J. Fishman at the Library of Congress and Museum of Television and Radio (now the Paley Center for Media).
- Antony Daws for holding the key to BBC Schools Transmission pamphlets at the London Institute of Education Information Services.
- Ron Magliozzi at the Museum of Modern Art (NYC).
- Iwan Jenkins from The National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales.
- The friendly staff at the Österreichische Mediathek.
- Wolf-D. Fruck, Senior Product Manager, Random House Audio LITERA of the Verlagsgruppe Random House.
- Niky Rathbone, at the time still in charge of the Shakespeare Collection at the Birmingham Central Library.
- David Howells, Curator of the RSC Collections at the Royal Shakespeare Company, Stratford-upon-Avon.
- Veronika Schandl for providing us with a meticulously translated list of Shakespeare video recordings held at the Hungarian Theatre archives.
- Tina Kornfeld and Holger Wendt for unlocking the archive of the Schauspielhaus Zürich.
- All our SHAKESPEAREAV listmembers.
- Sylvia Morris and Helen Hargest from the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive in Stratford-upon-Avon.
- Kate Welch and staff at The Shakespeare Institute Library, Stratford-upon-Avon.
- Kenneth Rothwell and Annabelle Henkin Melzer for their pioneering work on Shakespeare On Screen.
- Contributors to Shakespeares After Shakespeare – especially Mike Jensen, Susanne Greenhalgh, Richard Burt, Douglas Lanier, Courtney Lehmann.
- Mariangela Tempera, for a list of Shakespeare films that she wasn’t supposed to let us see.
- Gordon Terris for all his encouragement and support.
- Trista (Ya Hui-Yang) for enlightening us about Shakespeare in Taiwan.
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The BUFVC Shakespeare project used The Arden Shakespeare Complete Works as its standard reference text.
BBC Active Shakespeare Collection
The BBC Television Shakespeare series is available for use in UK education though BBC Active, which handles home video distribution of BBC releases with the requisite licences for use in training and education (including digital licences for online environments).
An audiovisual database developed to helpstudents and scholars gain a greater understanding of the work of theatre designers working in Britain during the last forty years of the previous century.
A service for UK Higher and Further education offering downloadable films to licensed institutions only. Its Performance Shakespeare collection includes eleven programmes from Channel 4 Learning (encoded and described by the BUFVC) including performances of Macbeth and Twelfth Night.
The BUFVC’s online database providing details for over 30,000 audio-visual programmes, and their distributors, available in the UK.
Includes a database of over 1,000 film and stage production relating to Shakespeare’s work. The film records come from Kenneth Rothwell and Anna Henkin Melzer’s Shakespeare on Screen (1990), with some updating.
Mr William Shakespeare and the Internet
An annotated guide to the scholarly Shakespeare resources available on Internet.
ShakespeaRe-told Shakespeare on the BBC, including information on its recent adaptations of some of the plays in modern settings, games and quizzes. No longer being updated but still a very valuable source.
International electronic conference and moderated mailing list for Shakespearean researchers, instructors, students, and those who share their academic interests and concerns.
Sixty-second interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays contributed by UK schools.
Developed by the Culture Online programme to open up innovative theatre practice at the National Theatre and selected regional partners in England to new and existing audiences.
Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching (TRILT)
The BUFVC’s comprehensive online listing of UK television and radio, covering 1995 to the present day. Accessible to BUFVC members only.
World Shakespeare Bibliography
Annotated entries for all important books, articles, book reviews, dissertations, theatrical productions, reviews of productions, audiovisual materials, electronic media, and other scholarly and popular materials related to Shakespeare and published or produced from 1964 to present day. Requires subscription.
To find more Shakespeare material online you can also visit the BUFVC’s Moving Image Gateway.
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In 2009 the BUFVC published Shakespeare on Film, Television and Radio: The Researcher’s Guide. Everything about the how as well as the why of studying audiovisual Shakespeare is provided here, from silent cinema to the multiplex, and from cat’s whiskers to YouTube. The Guide will become a standard text for anyone interested in the most filmed and the most widely broadcast of all writers. It includes:
- Compact historical and critical overviews on Shakespeare across the media
- A reference section including guides to archives and their use, advice on copyright and citation
- A guide to Shakespeare productions selected and recommended by leading scholars
- Original documents from the British entertainment industry
Contributors to the book include Michael Anderegg, Dr Judith Buchanan, Professor Richard Burt, Christie Carson, Susanne Greenhalgh, Mike Flood Page, Professor Roberta Pearson and Professor Kenneth S. Rothwell.
‘Lively, informative and insightful. An indispensable contribution to the critical and historical study of Shakespeare on screen’ – Professor Russell Jackson, University of Birmingham
‘With engrossing articles and comprehensive research guidance, this volume will be an invaluable tool for teachers, students and Shakespeare enthusiasts looking for pathways through a global, ever-expanding and endlessly fascinating field’ – Daniel Rosenthal, author of 100 Shakespeare Films (BFI, 2007)
ShakespeareAV Discussion List
We have established an online discussion list, as a forum for debating the subject of audiovisual Shakespeare and for sending out information on the project’s progress. The list is open to anyone who wishes to join.
Join ShakespeareAV